Wizard meets Shinigami
by shoot-the-moon13
Summary: Harry & Ron are transported to the Soul Society instead of platform 9 3/4, and with some help from some Shinigami, they get back to Hogwarts, but with some exchange students tagging along. Set in GoF. Pairings: YumixOC, IchiRuki, onesided RenRuki. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Wizard meets Shinigami [couldn't think of a title for this. Any ideas, feel free to let me know]**

**Summary: When Harry and Ron can't go through the barrier to Platform 9 3/4, they wait a while before trying again. This time they go through, but end up in the Soul Society instead of the platform. With help from some Shinigami, they manage to get back to Hogwarts, but with some foreign exchange students with them.**

**Set in Harry and Ron's fourth year, and after Aizen's betrayal in Bleach. I know that in the fourth book, there's the Quidditch World Cup thing going on, but for the sake of this fic, it never happened. Or rather, it did, but they went to the platform differently then they did in the book. I know that most of these fics occur during fifth year since Voldy's alive and all, but I wanted to do things differently, so.. I'm not quite sure how this is going to work out, but whatever. I'm trying, and that's good enough for me.**

**Oh, and the whole Gigai thing… I'm not quite sure exactly how it works, just that the Soul Reapers get their Gigais when they're already in the real world, but since that won't work in this case, they're going to be in the Gigais in the Soul Society right before they go to the world of the living. ;]And, I'm just going to pretend that everyone understands each other, just to make it easier. Also, my OC is in here, but she's the only OC there is. **

**Now onto the story! Enjoy, and don't forget to review!**

* * *

Harry and Ron looked at the barrier, and then to each other. For some reason it wouldn't let them through, and they needed to be on the platform in five minutes, or the train would go on without them. Harry had let his owl, Hedwig, out of her cage so she could fly off, and also because she was attracting too many stares from the Muggles. A few minutes after that, Harry had realized that he should've wrote a note to Hermione, but it was too late.

"I can't believe this is happening again," Harry said, sighing. "Wasn't it enough in second year? Why again two years later?"

"Maybe it hates us. Lets try again in two minutes, and if it still won't let us through, we'll just have to wait for someone to walk back out here," Ron suggested, and Harry nodded. They counted two minutes, and then Harry pushed his cart into the wall, Ron grinning and following behind him. They emerged onto what they thought was Platform 9 3/4, but when they blinked and looked around again, they realized that it wasn't the platform, and that they had no idea where they were.

"Ron? Where are we, exactly?" Harry asked. They were surrounded by tall white buildings, and when he looked behind him, there was nothing there, making Harry wonder how they got there in the first place.

"No idea, mate," Ron said, also looking around.

"Let's walk around and try to find someone," he said, figuring that they might as well do something besides standing there. Harry shook some of his hair out of his face and started pushing his cart, with Ron next to him. Before long, they started hearing voices, and they quickened their pace. They stopped at the end of a building, and Harry and Ron ditched their carts so they could look around the corner without attracting attention to themselves.

"This is so boring!" a girl was saying to two guys. She had black hair that was pulled up into ponytail, with some of the hair spiking out. She also had long bangs that covered half of her face, and a few short strands covered some of the other side of her face. She was wearing a plain black choker around her neck, and a black armband on her left arm. But what really made her stand out was the weird black robes she wore, and the sword strapped to her back.

"I know, Ruri, but Zaraki told us to stay here," one of the guys said. He had black hair that barely reached his shoulders, and there were two feathers coming from both his eyebrow and the corner of his eye. He was wearing the same type of robes, but with a weird orange scarf thing, and also had a sword that was hanging at his waist.

"Apparently something should be happening here soon," the other guy said. He was bald, and had red markings on his eyes. Like the other two, he was wearing the robes and had a sword, which he was holding over his shoulders.

"Yeah, so? I'm bored," the girl said again.

"You said that already," said the bald guy. "Is having short term memory loss an affect of being short?"

"I'm not short! I'm taller than Toshiro, you know, baldy!" she shouted, glaring at him from the one eye that was visible. Ron gave Harry the '_wtf_' look, and Harry shrugged in response.

"You wanna say that again, pipsqueak?" 'Baldy' asked threateningly.

"You wanna fight, cue ball?" she replied, her hand going to the hilt of her sword.

"Bring it on!" The bald one unsheathed his sword, and was now holding both the sheath and the sword. The black haired guy just rolled his eyes as he watched the girl unsheathe her sword.

"Lets interfere, before they kill each other," Ron whispered to Harry.

"Yeah. Leave the carts here, though," Harry whispered back. He and Ron walked up to the three, and the two who were going to fight stopped to stare at him.

"Who're you?" the girl asked, looking at them, and temporarily forgot about beating up the bald one.

"Er, I'm Ron Weasley, and this is Harry Potter," Ron said, and Harry nodded, waiting for the three to stare at him in shock. It didn't happen, to Harry's relief.

"Aren't they the two we're supposed to be looking for?" the black haired guy asked.

"Think so," the girl replied, shrugging, and sheathed her sword. The bald guy did the same and put it back over his shoulder.

"Who're you guys? And where exactly are we?" Harry asked.

"Ikkaku Madarame, third seat of the 11th division," the bald guy said.

"I don't think they know what the squads are, but whatever. I'm Ruri Aruteru, the sixth seat of the same squad," the girl said.

"And I'm Yumichika Ayasegawa, the fifth seat of squad 11," the black haired guy said. "And to answer your second question, you're in the Soul Society."

"Or Seireitei," Ruri added helpfully, and Yumichika nodded.

"Soul Society?" Harry asked.

"Well, yeah," Ikkaku said. "Ya know, when you die and pass on, you go to the Soul Society."

"Wait, you _are _dead, aren't you?" Yumichika asked, staring at them. Ron and Harry both shook their confused heads.

"So, they're humans... And Captain told us to find them?" Ruri asked slowly, then rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Come with us ... Harry and Ron."

"Er, we have stuff that we left over there," Ron said, nodding towards the place where the came from.

"Go get it, then," Ikkaku said, and the two wizards rushed to go get the carts. When they came back, the three were waiting for them, and Ikkaku's sword was now at his waist. Harry figured the girl told him to quit holding it all the time.

"Right, let's go," Ruri said, noticing them, and led them through the maze of buildings. After a few minutes of walking, they reached a smaller building. Ruri opened the door and walked in with Yumichika and Ikkaku, and she motioned for Harry and Ron to go in with their stuff. As soon as the two walked in, they fell to their knees, feeling as if there was something around them that was pressuring them down.

"This is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. They were the only ones that were there, and they're humans, so they're the ones we're looking for," Yumichika said to the guy who was sitting at a desk.

"Um, Captain? You might wanna lower your spiritual pressure first," Ruri said before he could say anything.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that," he replied, smirking, and the pressure around Harry and Ron disappeared. The two got up, and looked at the guy who was talking. He was also wearing the black robes, but had a tattered white jacket over it, and his sword was on the desk. He was giant, but with muscle instead of fat, and his hair was separated into spikes with bells at the tips. He had an eye patch covering one of his eyes, and there was a scar running through the other eye. And the guy didn't seem to have eyebrows, which freaked out Harry and Ron, not to mention the creepy smile he was giving them. "I'm Kenpachi Zaraki, captain of the 11th squad. Now which one's Potter and which one's Weasley?"

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron said.

"Harry Potter," Harry said, feeling stupid, but also relieved when they still didn't seem to recognize his name.

"Right, so you guys are… wizards?" Kenpachi asked, staring at them oddly, and Ron nodded. "And you do this magic?" Ron nodded again.

"Magic? That doesn't exist," Yumichika said.

"Yeah, it does," Harry objected.

"Then prove it," Ruri said, and Harry sighed, but pulled out his wand.

"A stick?" Ikkaku asked, staring at Harry like he was crazy.

"It's a _wand_," Ron corrected, glaring at him. Harry nodded his thanks and looked around the room for something to levitate.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Harry said, pointing his wand at a chair, which flew up into the air. As Harry moved his wand, the chair also moved, until he dropped it, ending the spell. "See? It's real."

"Can you make anything else float?" Ruri asked excitedly. "Like people?"

Kenpachi coughed, saving Harry from answering the question, and Ruri blushed slightly. "I'm assuming you two want to know where you are, and why you're here?" Harry and Ron nodded. "Then sit down, it's gonna take a while to explain."

* * *

About an hour and a half of explaining later, Harry and Ron finally understood what the Soul Society was, what Soul Reapers were, and why they were there. Apparently the Head Captain Yamamoto knew of Hogwarts, and wanted a few Soul Reapers to go to the school to make sure that Aizen, the Shinigami's enemy, didn't join the not-dead-but-not-exactly-alive Voldemort, and also, in a sense, protect Harry. Which Harry didn't agree on, but he let it go, since it made sense, even if he didn't want to admit it. Anyway, Yamamoto had one of the captains, Kurotsuchi, make the barrier at King's Cross turn into a Senkaimon, which was like a portal leading to the Seireitei, so that when they walked through it, they would arrive in the Soul Society, though not by the Senkaimon on Sokyoku Hill. That part confused both Harry and Ron, but they just went along as if they understood it all. So now, Kurotsuchi was figuring out a way to transport them back to Hogwarts, along with a group of Soul Reapers that they were going to meet in a few minutes, once they arrived in Kenpachi's office.

"So, how many are coming with us to Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Well, there's me, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Renji, Rukia, Ichigo, and Toshiro, so… that's seven of us," Ruri said. "But since Ikkaku doesn't exactly look like a student, he's going to be teaching another subject there."

"Wait, does Dumbledore know about all this?" Ron asked.

"That's the headmaster of the school, right? He will when we go there," Ikkaku replied, shrugging.

"Old man Yamamoto supposedly talked to him about it all," Kenpachi said. "If that's true, though, I don't know." The door opened, and four Soul Reapers walked in, one of them wearing the white Captain's haori.

"Finally," Ruri muttered so only Yumichika, Ikkaku, Harry, and Ron could hear her.

"Now that everyone's here, these are the two wizards you were told about: Harry Potter and Ron Weasley," Kenpachi said, pointing at the two boys respectively. "And since they have no idea who any of you are…"

"We would've introduced ourselves if you didn't start talking right away, Captain Zaraki," the other captain said, glaring at Kenpachi before turning to Harry and Ron. "I am Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya." So that was who Ruri was comparing herself to, Harry thought, noticing the name, and his lack in height.

"I'm Rukia Kuchiki," the only girl in the group (besides Ruri) said.

"Ichigo Kurosaki," said the orange haired boy.

"And Renji Abarai," the red haired guy with the tattoos said.

"Now that everyone's met each other, let's meet back here in two hours, so that the Soul Reapers can get their Gigais and school stuff, and Kurotsuchi will have enough time to make that portal thing for us," Kenpachi said. "Oh, and Potter, Weasley, remember not to mention to anyone at your school that we're Soul Reapers."

"A Gigai is a Soul Reaper's body that we use when we go to the world of the living," Ruri explained to Harry and Ron, who nodded.

"See ya guys later," Ichigo said as he and the other Shinigami left.

* * *

_Two Hours Later, somewhere in between the 11th__ and 12__th__ division areas…_

"That's the portal thing?" Ruri asked, staring at it doubtfully. Kenpachi told them all to go there since that was where the portal was located, and they were all standing in front of the so-called 'portal.' It was supposed to look like the Senkaimon, but it failed. Instead, it was just a plan wood door set in the middle of the field, and it was supposed to transport them all to the land right outside Hogwarts castle. The Soul Reapers all doubted that it would work, but at the same time, hoped that it did. They were all in their Gigais, and carrying bags with their books and other stuff they'd need at Hogwarts, along with Harry and Ron, who traded the carts for the bags.

"Apparently so," Renji said. "It's the only thing that's here, right?"

"What's the big deal?" Ron asked. "If that's it, then just open the door and go through it already."

"Impatient much?" Ruri muttered, rolling her eyes. She walked up to the door and opened it, and blue light filled the space. She stared at it for a second, then walked through and disappeared.

"Impatience is such an ugly emotion," Yumichika said, and followed her through the portal. Ron and Harry went next, and then Ichigo, Rukia, Ikkaku, Renji, and Toshiro.

"So this is Hogwarts?" Ichigo asked, and was ignored by everyone.

"I guess we just walk up to the door and see if it's open," Harry said, and the group followed him up to the castle. The doors weren't open, so they got Ikkaku to pound on the door. Almost immediately, the door opened, and three people walked outside: Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall, as Harry pointed out to the Soul Reapers.

"So this is where the Golden Boy and his friend disappeared to," Snape sneered as he saw Harry and Ron, who glared at him. A few Shinigami also glared at him, and Yumichika looked at him in disgust.

"His hair is just plain disgusting! Does he ever wash it?" Yumichika asked in a low voice, causing a few of their group to try and hide their laughs.

"Obviously not," Ruri replied, causing the rest of the group to laugh, and even Toshiro tried to hide a smile.

"Are all of you the exchange students?" Dumbledore asked, ignoring their laughter.

"Yeah," Ichigo replied at the same time Ikkaku said, "No."

"What he means is, we're all exchange students except for Ikkaku, who said he got a job here to teach another subject," Toshiro explained. The wizards looked at him oddly, since he was the smallest of the group, yet he was talking for all of them.

"I can speak for myself, ya know," Ikkaku muttered.

"Then why didn't you?" Ruri asked him, smirking.

"Burn!" Ichigo shouted, and then dodged a punch Ikkaku threw at him.

"Guys," Toshiro said, glaring at them, and they stopped the beginning of their fight. The captain turned back to Dumbledore. "Sorry about them; they're idiots."

"How about we continue this conversation inside?" Dumbledore asked, and the Shinigami nodded. "Minerva, you can take care of Harry and Ron." With that, Dumbledore turned around and led the Shinigami inside the castle, and McGonagall stayed outside with the boys. Snape followed them inside, glaring at the back of Yumichika's head. As they walked through the halls, the Soul Reapers kept looking around at everything in awe, until they saw the portraits.

"How do they move and talk? Are their souls stuck in the portrait or something?" Ruri asked.

"If they are…" Toshiro said threateningly, and Dumbledore just laughed.

"No, that's not it. The wizard who painted it also put magic in the painting, so that the person who was painted would act however the person himself wanted it to," Dumbledore explained. The Soul Reapers didn't fully believe him, but they let it go, and Toshiro planned to check it out sometime later. By then, they were heading up the stairs and into Dumbledore's office, with Snape still following them, to Yumichika's discomfort. Once in the office, Dumbledore waved his wand in the room, and seven chairs appeared. He sat down at his desk, and Snape stood off to the side, glaring at them all as they sat down. "So you all are the reason why the two boys were late, I presume?"

"In a sense, yes," Toshiro replied. They were all told to keep their identity as Soul Reapers a secret, so Yamamoto came up with a cover story for them that was partially true. "You see, we were lost, and we saw Potter and Weasley with their stuff, so we asked them to show us how to get onto the platform. But it was useless, since it wouldn't let us through."

"I don't mean to interrupt," Snape said, as if he didn't really care if he was interrupting or not, "but I thought I should mention that it's impolite to talk while someone else was talking." He glared at Yumichika and Ruri, who looked up and blushed. They had been making fun of Snape and talking quietly, and they didn't think anyone would notice. Toshiro glared at them.

"Sorry," they both muttered, but rolled their eyes once Toshiro looked away.

"So then, how _did_ you get here?" Dumbledore asked.

"A friend of ours used some sort of transportation thing to get us here," Renji replied. "We don't know what it was, though."

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Since you're all going to be students here, you need to be sorted. Severus, the hat?" Snape took an old looking hat off one of the shelves, and handed it to him. "This is the sorting hat, it will sort you into one of the four houses here, which is where you'll be staying for the duration of the year. Before you put it on, just state your name and what year you'll be going into." He handed the hat to Ichigo.

"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, and I guess fifth year?" Ichigo said, then reluctantly put the hat on his head. After a few seconds, the hat shouted out Gryffindor. He passed the hat to Rukia.

"Rukia Kuchiki, and also fifth year," she said, and put the hat on, and got sorted into Ravenclaw.

"Renji Abarai, fifth year," Renji said as he put the hat on, and got sorted into Gryffindor. He gave the hat to Toshiro.

"Toshiro Hitsugaya, fifth year," he said quickly, and Ruri coughed.

"Um, Toshiro, since we're both height challenged, how 'bout we both go into fourth year?" she asked. "That way you don't draw a lot more attention than you normally would. And since I'm barely taller than you…."

Toshiro looked at her, and considered her idea. She was one of the few people who could call him by his first name or call him short, since she also knew what it was like to be made fun of because of her height. "You're right," he said at last, to the shock of the other Soul Reapers.

"What? Are you serious, Hitsugaya? You let her call you short _and_ you agree with her?" Ichigo asked in surprise.

"She used the correct term for short, which is height challenged. Remember that, Kurosaki," Toshiro replied, glaring at him.

"_She_ has a name," Ruri said. "And, Ichigo, what's wrong if Toshiro and I are against height discrimination? Huh?"

"Height discrimination?" Ichigo repeated. "Since when-"

"Just shut up, Ichigo," Rukia interrupted, glaring at him, and he fell silent.

"Hitsugaya, and fourth year," Toshiro said and finally put on the sorting hat, to get sorted into Ravenclaw. He passed the hat to Ruri.

"Ruri Aruteru, fourth year," she announced, and put on the hat. It took a few seconds before it shouted Gryffindor. "Here ya go, Yumi," she said cheerfully as she handed the hat to Yumichika.

"Don't call me that," he said to her, then turned to Dumbledore. "Yumichika Ayasegawa, fifth year…. Do I really have to put this ugly thing on?"

"Yes, you do," Dumbledore said, smiling.

"I am _not_ ugly!" the hat shouted, which just made Yumichika deem it uglier.

"If you won't put it on, I'll force it on your pretty head," Ruri threatened when he hesitated. She waited two seconds, then stood up, taking the hat from him, and pressing on his head. She sat down and smiled triumphantly.

"Gryffindor!" the hat shouted and yumichika pulled it off his head, messing up his normally perfect hair.

"You're dead, Ruri," he hissed at her as he handed Ikkaku the hat and tried to flatten his hair.

"Why me? I didn't do anything to your hair, the hat did," she replied, looking at him innocently. "But since you can't kill a hat, kill Ikkaku, because he doesn't have any hair."

"What did you say?" Ikkaku growled as he glared at her.

"She said you're bald," Ichigo said, smirking. "I don't know why you get so mad when someone points out the obvious."

"The hat, please," Dumbledore said, interrupting them.

"Ikkaku Madarame," Ikkaku said. "But, what about that class where they all learn to fight without magic?"

"You'll teach that, but you should still be sorted," Dumbledore replied, and Ikkaku shrugged before putting the hat on. As soon as it touched his bald head, it screamed out Gryffindor and went limp. Ikkaku held it away from him, and everyone stared at it.

"I think it died," Ruri said, poking it. "Yumichika, what did you do?"

"Fixed my hair," he replied innocently, and he was right. His hair wasn't the same as it had been before, but it was pretty close.

"It didn't die," Dumbledore said, taking the hat from Ikkaku. "It goes like this once it's done sorting. Now, Ikkaku, you mentioned the extra class, and that you want to teach it. Since no one applied for the job, you can have it, but first I'll need proof of your fighting skills."

"I'll fight Ruri, but is there a place large enough to fight in?" Ikkaku asked.

"Yes, we'll go to your new classroom, and on the way back I'll point out the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms," he replied. "Who wants to witness their fight?" Everyone's hands shot up, and Renji and Ichigo started placing bets on who would win.

"Wait, what kind of fight are we talking about?" Ruri asked.

"Well, since the students are going to be learning both how to fight with swords and their hands, you can choose," Dumbledore said, and she nodded. Then Dumbledore stood up, and lead them out of his office, and up some stairs and down some corridors.

"Sword fight, Ikkaku?" Ruri asked as they all followed Dumbledore.

Ikkaku nodded. "Be prepared to lose... Pipsqueak."

"You are _so_ dead now, baldy!"

"Kurosaki's right, Ruri might win this time," Toshiro said to Renji.

"I don't think so," Renji said. "Every time they fought, Ikkaku always won."

"But this time there fighting at equal strength, so you never know," Rukia pointed out. They knew she meant that they weren't fighting with their zanpaktous, so the outcome of the fight would most likely be different.

"I still say Ikkaku's gonna win," Renji said, and then walked up to said Shinigami. "Hey, you better win, got it?"

"Of course I'll win," Ikkaku replied, smirking evilly.

"Good, because I bet half of my salary that you'd win, and there's no way I'm giving that to Ichigo," he said, then waited for the others to catch up.

"Here we are," Dumbledore said as they stopped in front of a classroom. He opened the door, and they all walked in, looking around. It was completely empty aside from a few chairs by the walls of the room, and the rest was just empty space. Along one wall was a whole bunch of swords, some wooden, and some not. Ruri and Ikkaku headed straight towards the swords, both taking out a normal sword, and testing it to see if they liked it or not. Everyone else lined up against the other wall as they moved to the center of the room.

"Don't cause each other any major injuries," Snape said, though he looked as if he couldn't care less if they killed each other or not, and a few of them laughed.

"And don't hurt the room either," Yumichika added.

"Just fight already!" Ichigo shouted. "Best out of three wins."

"Prepare to die, Ikkaku," Ruri said, smirking, and the fight began. Ikkaku was on the defensive from the moment the fight started, which Ichigo pointed out to Renji. There was an especially loud clang of metal against metal, and Ruri flew back a few feet, before readjusting her grip on her sword and lunging back at Ikkaku. There was some blood flying, but no one could tell who's it was. They both jumped back at the same time, and a few second later Ikkaku jumped at Ruri, his sword a blur as he swung it around. She ducked and jumped out of the way, and swung her sword at his side, slicing through his clothes and skin.

"Cut number two!" Ruri sang as she practically danced away from him. "One more and I win!"

"Damn you," Ikkaku growled at her as he brought his sword up for another attack.

"What's the matter, baldy?" she asked, laughing, and blocked his attack. She dodged the next blow, and jumped up, cutting Ikkaku's arm. She landed, and grinned at him.

"You're just having a good day, don't get all excited 'bout it," he said to her before she could say anything. "Next time, I'll win."

"_Sure_," Ruri said sarcastically, rolling her eyes, then put away her sword and walked over to the other Shinigami, who were receiving their money. It wasn't just Ichigo and Renji who bet on the result of the fight. Toshiro, Yumichika, and Rukia also bet on Ruri being the winner, and Renji handed them all, and Ichigo, his money, while complaining the whole time. Then Dumbledore showed them to the common rooms (Ikkaku had an office by the classroom, which had a door connecting to his own room), and told them all that they'd be introduced to the rest of the school tomorrow morning so they should get their rest. They ignored him, since they were already supposed to meet up that night in their Soul Reaper forms.

* * *

Ruri, Yumichika, Renji, and Ichigo walked into the Gryffindor common room, which was empty except for three students sitting by the fire. Two of them were Harry and Ron.

"Hey, you guys are all in Gryffindor?" Harry asked when he noticed them looking around.

"Yep," Ichigo said.

"There should be more colors in here than just red and gold," Yumichika commented.

"Those are the house colors, idiot," Renji told him, rolling his eyes.

"Who are you guys, exactly?" said Harry and Ron's friend.

"We could ask you the same question," Ruri replied, staring at her. She had gotten over beating Ikkaku, and now she was exhausted. It didn't help that she, along with everyone else, had to slip out of their Gigais that night.

"I'm Hermione Granger," she said, blushing.

"Ruri Aruteru," Ruri said, smirking. "We're all exchange students."

"I'm Yumichika Ayasegawa," Yumichika said.

"Ichigo Kurosaki." Ichigo looked bored, and started walking around the common room, looking at stuff.

"Why am I last?" Renji asked.

"Because you thought Ikkaku could beat me," Ruri answered simply.

"Well he always does," Renji said, then looked at Hermione. "I'm Renji Abarai, by the way."

"So where-" Hermione started.

"Wait a second," Ron interrupted, staring at Ruri. "You fought Ikkaku and won?"

"Yep," she said happily. "It was awesome."

"Whoa," Harry said, staring at her in awe.

"As I was going to say, where are you guys from?" Hermione asked.

"Japan," Ichigo replied, coming back to the group.

"Hey, not to be rude or anything, but can we all talk tomorrow? It's late, and don't we all have classes tomorrow morning?" Ruri asked, and yawned to prove her point.

"That's a good idea," Hermione said. "I'll show you where our dorms are."

Ruri nodded, and said 'see ya' to everyone else before following her to the girls dorm. The guys followed Harry and Ron in the opposite direction. Once in the dorm, Ruri changed, and pulled the curtain around her bed, and waited until she was sure Hermione was asleep. After about five minutes, she left her gigai, and flash-stepped to the roof of the school, where everyone was going to meet. The only one there so far was Toshiro, who nodded at her. After a few minutes, the other Soul Reapers appeared and joined them, a few of them yawning.

"First things first," Toshiro said. "What do you think about the portraits?"

"They seem to be souls, but I think Dumbledore was telling us the truth when we asked," Rukia said. "When I looked at them, they didn't really act the way a soul would."

Toshiro nodded. "We'll meet here every four days, unless someone finds out something important that could help us with our mission. And remember, don't let anyone think that there's something weird about us."

"No problem," Ichigo replied.

"I should be able to find out a lot of info since I'm a teacher and all," Ikkaku said.

"What, is he trying to feel important?" Ruri muttered to Yumichika.

"If we were using our zanpaktous, I would've kicked your ass, Ruri, and you know that," Ikkaku said to her.

"Yeah, but we weren't using our zanpaktous," she replied in a 'no duh' voice.

"Lets just go bed, everyone," Toshiro said, and they all flash stepped away.

* * *

**I think it dragged on.. But I wanted to finish the first day, so…  
****Right, so is it good, bad, or what? Should I continue? Review please, and tell me. I'll start the next chapter in case you guys like it. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Me: Thanks for reviewing/favoriting/alerting! **

**Yumichika: And… **

**Me: Oh yeah. Thanks to Isana, for being the first reviewer; to drkphoenyx for being the first to add this to their alerts list; to Escapedslave99 for giving me a cookie; and to Jiuriana-chan for being the third reviewer! Also, Isana, I think you're right about the Ravenclaws not having any classes with the Gryffindors… but I don't care. =D They're only going to have like, one or two classes together, so… And, the POV's going to be switching from house to house, but it's mainly going to be focused on the Gryffindors. Hope that clears some things up. ;] Now, Yumichika, do the disclaimer!**

**Yumichika: Ruri doesn't own Bleach or Harry Potter. It would be chaotic if she did. **

**Me: Now, onto the story! Enjoy, and don't forget to review! -goes back to eating the cookie-**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Hey, Ruri, wake up," a voice to Ruri's right said. She opened her eyes and looked up at Hermione.

"What is it?" she asked, then yawned.

"You got a message from Dumbledore saying that he wants you to go to his office in about 15 minutes," Hermione told her. "I guess your friends will be there, too."

"Yeah, probably," Ruri said, then got up. A few minutes later, she was changed into her robes (_Why do we have to wear this? I'm probably gonna end up tripping over the damn thing_, she thought) and was walking to the common room, her bag over one shoulder, and saw Yumichika was waiting for her.

"Ichigo and Renji already left," he said when she walked up to him.

"Losers," she replied. "Well, let's get going. We don't wanna be the last ones there, that's for sure, though we probably are." With that, they walked out of the common room, and made their way to Dumbledore's office, only getting lost twice on the way there. They reached the gargoyles, and they stopped.

"Um..." Ruri said, feeling dumb.

"There's a password, and it makes them move away," Yumichika explained.

"Well, what's the password, then?" she asked.

"I think it was Fizzing Whizbees, but-" he was cut off as the gargoyles moved aside. "I was right."

"No shit," Ruri said, smirking at him, then lead the way up the stairs, where they saw the doors leading to the office. "You knock, Yumi."

"Why don't you? And I thought I told you not to call me that," Yumichika replied.

"Who died and made you Captain?" she retorted. "But I'm not knocking, you know I hate knocking on doors."

"Well I'm not knocking either."

"Why not? Too lazy?"

"Like you're one to talk, Ruri."

"Well why won't you just knock on the damn door? Afraid it'll bruise your hand or something?"

"A door can't bruise me-"

"What about the time where Ikkaku shoved you, and you fell face first onto a door? That left an ugly bruise on your face, or did you forget?" She smirked as Yumichika turned a faint pink.

"That was because Ikkaku was being an idiot! And I tend to forget ugly things or incidents."

"Ooh, struck a nerve, did I? But still, just knock on the door already, Yumichika."

"No, I don't feel like it."

"Ha! So you really ARE lazy! But that's still not an excuse."

"If you want the door to get knocked on so bad, why don't you?"

"I told you already, I don't like knocking on doors!"

"Well you're going to have to, because I'm not going to knock for you."

"... So you'll knock for yourself, then?"

"No!"

"Damn."

"Just knock," Yumichika said after a few second of silence. "Just standing here is getting quite annoying."

"I'll knock when you do," she replied. A few more seconds passed, and the door opened, Ichigo staring at them.

"Really, guys?" he asked.

"You... You heard us?" Ruri asked, and Ichigo nodded. "Who else is in there?"

"Everyone, and the teachers," Ichigo replied, and laughed as Ruri and Yumichika blushed.

"Not Snape, I hope," Yumichika said. "He already hates our guts and thinks we're stupid, it'd be hell of he was listening."

"Sorry, Yumichika," he said, his smile getting bigger. "But come in, though."

"Just act normal," Ruri muttered, and she and Yumichika followed Ichigo into the office, where everyone was staring at them. Both of their faces were heated up.

"Those are the last of the exchange students," Dumbledore said, and everyone faced him. "Now, these are the professors that work here." He introduced the professors and what subjects they taught, and then asked the Soul Reapers if they had any questions. Ruri was dying to ask Professor Moody what was up with his eye, but decided against it, since she was embarrassed enough.

"Well then, breakfast starts in about twenty minutes, and you'll all be introduced to the rest of the school there." They nodded, and the teachers walked out of the room, most likely heading towards the Great Hall since they had nothing better to do. Ikkaku stayed behind, though. "Now, there's a few things that you should know about," Dumbledore said. "There are these dark wizards called Death Eaters-"

"What's a Death Eater?" Ichigo interrupted.

"He just said what they were," Rukia said, exasperated, and rolled her eyes.

"They were followers of Lord Voldemort, the greatest dark wizard there ever was," Dumbledore explained. "After Voldemort was destroyed by Harry Potter -which don't ask me how, because I'm not quite sure- they made excuses for their loyalty to him, and denied being a Death Eater willingly. But, they seem to be joining forces again."

"Why, if there's no Voldy-whatever?" Ruri asked.

"Well, Voldemort wasn't dead when he was defeated by Harry 12 years ago. Somehow, he survived without a body, and is now slowly gaining power," Dumbledore said. "The Death Eaters are apparently aware of this, due to something they did this summer **[A/N: the dark mark at the Quidditch world cup]**, and they are most likely regrouping."

"Why are you telling us all this?" Toshiro asked. He didn't like the sound of the Death Eaters, or this Voldemort guy. They reminded him of Aizen, and Toshiro was almost positive the other Shinigami were thinking the same thing.

"So you know what everyone might be talking about today," he replied. "Its all over the news, and telling you now would save you the trouble of asking people and getting mixed answers." Toshiro nodded, it made sense. Dumbledore continued, "Also, there is a special event that Hogwarts will be hosting this year."

"Event?" Renji asked. "Like what?"

"The Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore said. "Two other schools will be coming here in a few months, and we will be competing in a tournament. It's a rare event, and something everyone is looking forward to. You'll get more information when the two schools arrive."

"Can anyone compete?" Ikkaku asked.

"No, only those 17 and older," he replied. That meant all of them, since they were Shinigami, but since Dumbledore thought they were all 14 or 15, they didn't look excited. "And even if you wanted to participate, Ikkaku, you couldn't since you are, technically, a teacher here."

"Oh," Ikkaku muttered, looking depressed for a second before cheering up again. "Well, that doesn't stop me from declaring a rematch against Ruri."

"Not that again," Renji said. "I don't want to lose any more money." Ichigo, Rukia, Yumichika, and even Toshiro grinned a bit.

"Now, if you don't have any questions, let's go down to the Great Hall," Dumbledore said.

* * *

"That was the worst five minutes of my life," Ruri said as she stabbed her pancakes. The Soul Reapers were all introduced, and Ikkaku was introduced as the teacher of the new subject, Wandless Combat. Everyone stared at them, making them all slightly uncomfortable, even though some of them were used to being stared at. But it didn't help that they could hear whispers of _'whoa, they're so short!'_, '_what's with his tattoos and hair?'_, _'are those feathers?'_, _'is that red eye shadow, or a tattoo?'_, and Ruri's favorite: _'What, are they from Japan or something?' _Some people could be so stupid. But then, they already knew that, so it was nothing new. Now they were all sitting at their house tables, and Ikkaku was at the head table, though he wanted to sit with the Gryffindors.

"It wasn't that bad," Yumichika replied. "And besides, surely you've had a worse five minutes than that."

"That's because you think everyone's jealous when they stare at you," Renji pointed out.

"He has a point," Ichigo said, shrugging, and the two both went back to their food, which was piled high on their plate.

"Yumichika, I'm sure everyone's had a worse five minutes than that," Ruri said. "But the point was, I'd rather not do that again."

They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence, and when they were finished, they looked at their schedules. Ruri didn't bother seeing if she had any classes with Yumichika, Renji, or Ichigo, since she was in the year below them, so she compared her schedule with Harry's. They had all the same classes together, with the first one being Ikkaku's class... with the Slytherins. The Shinigami learned quickly to avoid the Slytherins at all costs from either Harry, Ron, and Hermione, or from just observing them in the first place. But at least this way, if any of them started anything with her, Ruri could easily beat them up, and say that was what she was supposed to do in the Wandless Combat class.

"Come on, let's get there before Malfoy does," Harry said, getting up. Ron, Hermione, and Ruri did the same.

"See ya guys later," Ruri said to the Soul Reapers, then caught up to the trio. "Malfoy?"

"He's the Slytherin git we hate," Ron told her. "But if we try to do anything against him, we almost always get in trouble."

"But it was fun punching his face," Hermione said, smiling at the memory.

"Seriously though, the guy's a real jerk," Harry said. "We'll point him out for you."

"Okay," Ruri said. She would've said more, but they reached the classroom, and they walked in. A few students were already there, mainly Gryffindors, though there were one or two Slytherins. "Well, we're early."

"Better early than late," Hermione replied. "But what's this class about, exactly? There weren't any books we had to get for it."

"That's because books don't teach you how to fight," Ruri told her. "Sure, they teach you spells, but this class has nothing to do with magic, remember? It's about learning to fight without a wand. Hand-to-hand combat, and the like."

"Would you look at that? The exchange student is lecturing the Mudblood about this pointless class," someone drawled, and Ruri turned around to face a boy who let the bleach stay in his hair for longer than was needed. By his side were two fat guys who Ruri thought were supposed to be intimidating, but to her, they failed at it.

"Don't call her that, Malfoy," Ron growled at him, but Malfoy just sneered at him.

"So your Malfoy, huh?" Ruri asked. She already didn't like him, he was too annoying for his own good, and he only said one thing so far.

"And you're the exchange student from Japan. Ruri something," Malfoy said. "But don't they have a school for magic in Japan?"

"It's Aruteru. Ruri Aruteru," she replied, glaring at him. "And yeah, there is a magic school in Japan. Does it matter why I came here instead of staying in Japan?"

"I don't care why. Though, if you're any smart, you should be able to at least pick better friends than Potter, the Weasel, and Granger," Malfoy sneered.

"Really? Well who do you think you are, telling me who my friends should or shouldn't be?" Ruri asked coldly. "I could tell you that you shouldn't be friends with Fattie Number One and Fattie Number Two, but does that mean you'll listen to me? No. So what makes you think I'm gonna listen to you, someone who doesn't even know how to bleach their hair correctly?"

Everyone in the room held their breath as the stared at Malfoy, waiting for his reaction. Crabbe and Goyle, being the stupid idiots that they are, didn't even realize Ruri insulted them.

"First of all, I don't bleach my hair," Malfoy said slowly, glaring at her. "And second, you're gonna regret saying that to me."

"Oh really?" she asked. "Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. A lot of people told me that, and I never regretted a thing."

"Well, if you're done arguing, I'm gonna start class now," Ikkaku said from the door, and everyone stared at him in shock, since no one heard the door open, or any sign that he was walking towards the classroom. Ruri, Harry, Ron, and Hermione smirked at Malfoy's red face. "I'm Ikkaku Madarame, you all can call me Professor Madarame if you want, and Ruri, you can call me anything."

"Got it, Baldy," Ruri said, smirking, and a few people gasped in shock.

"That's no way to talk to him, Ruri, he's a professor," Hermione hissed at her, but Ruri ignored her.

"Well, everything but that," Ikkaku added quickly, glaring at her. "Um, right. This class is obviously for fighting without using magic."

"What's the point?" Malfoy interrupted. "We'll always have our wands with us, so why bother learn to fight without wands if we can just stun them and leave?"

"What if your wand's broken, and you can't do magic? Your best bet would be to punch your attacker in the face, then run off," Ikkaku said. "Or what if your opponent was a Muggle, and you can't do magic at all? Muggles know how to fight, and wouldn't it be embarrassing to get beat up by a Muggle? Nothing against them, or anything, but ya get the point."

"See?" Ruri whispered to Hermione, who nodded.

"Now, who here knows anything about hand-to-hand combat, besides Ruri?" No one raised their hand, and Ikkaku sighed. "Pathetic. Right, well, first things first..."

* * *

Toshiro was beginning to question why he ever agreed to be in fourth year in the first place. He didn't mind being in Ravenclaw, since he wasn't surrounded by idiots for once, but he was all alone in his classes. Normally, he didn't mind being alone, but usually there was someone to talk to, like Rukia, since she was in his house. But now he was in one of the most boring classes ever, History of Magic, which was taught by a ghost that wouldn't quit glancing at him, and he had no one to play hangman with. At least his first class, Transfiguration, had been somewhat interesting. But still, it sucked. But luckily, History of Magic was almost over, and he had the next class with Gryffindor, meaning he could probably talk to Ruri. But then, since it was Snape's class, he probably couldn't.

The bell rang, and Toshiro was one of the first people out of the classroom. He followed a few Ravenclaws in front of him downstairs to the dungeons, and walked in. The Gryffindors were already there, and he spotted Ruri sitting in the back. She waved to him, and he walked over, sitting down next to her.

"So, how was your day so far?" she asked.

"Boring as hell," Toshiro replied. "Yours?"

"It was interesting. I scared off Malfoy, the school idiot, and called Ikkaku bald in front of the entire class... Their faces were priceless," Ruri said, smirking. "And then there was Care of Magical Creatures, which was just plain weird."

"Weird? How?" he asked, but then the door opened and Snape walked in, so Toshiro never got an answer. The class fell silent as Snape glared at them all front of the classroom, and Ruri tapped her fingers against the desk impatiently.

"Since you all are the same idiots you were last year, and we have new students, I'll go over the rules," Snape said, now glaring at Ruri and Toshiro specifically. "There will be no fooling around, no explosions, no disruptions, and if you don't turn something in, it's a zero, and will remain a zero. Also, there is no writing notes in my class, Aruteru." Toshiro looked down at the paper Ruri just slipped him. It read, _'what, does he have a list of things we can't do? Idiot... There should be a list of stuff he should do, and the first thing be shampoo hair... Again I say, idiot..._.' Snape had somehow noticed her writing it, and was now walking towards their desk. He grabbed the paper, and read it, narrowing his eyes. "Detention, Aruteru, Hitsugaya."

"What? Why Toshiro? He didn't do anything," Ruri protested, glaring at him. The other Gryffindors were also whispering to each other, but stopped when Snape glared at them.

"Ruri," Toshiro said warningly.

"Do you want your detention to be a week?" Snape asked.

"No, sir," Ruri said after a moment of hateful glaring.

"You and Hitsugaya will come to my office at seven. Don't be late," Snape said, then walked back to the front of the classroom. A list of instructions appeared on the board, and Snape told the class to start working on the potion.

"Sorry 'bout that," Ruri said to Toshiro as they got out their ingredients.

"Don't worry about it," he replied, and the rest of the class went by. At the end of class, Snape walked around the room, looking and criticizing people's potions, and giving some people a zero for no apparent reason, and deducting points from Gryffindor. He stopped when he reached Ruri and Toshiro's cauldron, which held the potion that looked exactly how it should. Snape couldn't find anything to make fun of, so he just glared at them and walked on. They put the potion a vial, wrote their names on it, and put it on Snape's desk on the way out.

"That git, giving Toshiro detention when he didn't do anything," Harry said as they went to lunch.

"Well at least Ruri doesn't have to face Snape's wrath alone," Ron said. "But what did you write?"

"It was nothing, just that he should create a list of stuff he should do, and that washing his hair would be number one," Ruri replied, shrugging.

"How did Snape even notice her writing?" Toshiro asked.

"He doesn't like us, isn't that answer enough?" Harry said.

"Well at least you guys did good on your potion, so he couldn't take off any points for that," Hermione spoke up.

"That always helps," Ron told them. "Sadly, no one else in Gryffindor besides Hermione is good in Potions, and Toshiro's in Ravenclaw..."

"Basically, we're doomed?" Ruri asked.

"Yep," Ron and Harry said in unison.

"But on the bright side, we're only a two minutes away from lunch," Ron pointed out.

"Boys," Hermione muttered, rolling her eyes as Toshiro and Ron talked about food.

"I couldn't agree with you more, Hermione," Ruri said as they entered the Great Hall. Toshiro said bye to them and headed towards the Ravenclaw table, and Ruri sat down by the Gryffindor Soul Reapers. Yumichika wasn't there, but she didn't think anything of it.

"Hey Ruri," Ichigo said when she sat down.

"Sup," she replied as she grabbed some food.

"Hey, did you have Moody's class yet?" Renji asked. "Its awesome."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he tortured and killed a spider," Ichigo said, and Renji glared at him.

"You weren't supposed to tell her, dumbass," he said.

"Does it really matter? I would've seen it sooner or layer," Ruri pointed out. "Um, where's Yumichika?"

"No idea," Ichigo said, shrugging. "He was right behind us when we left, though."

Ruri nodded, and started eating. The other Gryffindors were talking about Moody's class, and some were talking about the upcoming Triwizard Tournament and what they could do to try and enter even if they were underage. About ten minutes before lunch ended, the doors to the Great Hall opened, and Yumichika walked in, obviously pissed off. Why, no one knew. But everyone kept staring at him, and the Slytherin table erupted in laughter as he walked over to the Gryffindor table. That automatically made the Soul Reapers suspicious, but no one said anything as Yumichika sat down and started eating. They waited a few seconds before Ruri couldn't take it anymore.

"Well?" she asked impatiently.

"Well what?" Yumichika replied, staring intently at his food.

"You know damn well what! Why were the Slytherins laughing when you walked in, and why are you all pissed off?" Ruri asked.

"You have to answer that one," Renji said, smirking.

"Not helping, idiot!" Ruri hissed at him as Yumichika glared at him.

"It was nothing," Yumichika said.

"Something must've happened," she replied.

"C'mon, tell me," she added when he didn't say anything. "Please? Pretty please?"

"Well, I'll tell you this. If anyone finds a dead body, it was their fault in the first place," he said, and didn't say anything more than that. What that had to do with the Slytherins, they weren't sure, but whatever. It didn't seem like they were gonna get any more answers out of Yumichika, so they let it go.

"Hey, Ruri," Hermione said, walking over to them. "We got to go to class, come on."

"Right," she said, then turned back to the Shinigami. "See ya guys layer. And, Yumi? Don't kill anyone else." With that, she left the great hall with Hermione, Harry, and Ron.

* * *

The rest of the day passed without incident for the Soul Reapers. Moody's class shocked them all, since they didn't think magic could be that dangerous, or cruel. But if Aizen was thinking about joining the Death Eaters, then nothing good would come out of it. Not that anything good would happen anyway, but now the situation was a whole lot worse than it had been a day ago. And that was why Toshiro was standing on top of Hogwarts for the second time in a row, and why he would soon become sleep deprived. At least the detention with Snape had passed quickly, so he wasn't all that tired by the time he finished his homework and went to bed.

Toshiro just got off the phone with Yamamoto after explaining about the wizards, both good and bad, and the curses. Now, he was trying to figure out what happened with Yumichika and the Slytherins, since no one would tell him anything, not even Ruri, though she said that even she didn't know what happened. He sighed. He was in Ravenclaw, and he was the child prodigy back at the Seireitei, right? So why couldn't he figure out the answer to the one little thing that's been on his mind since lunch?

He thought the magic and lack of action was getting to him.

Toshiro sighed again, and unsheathed Hyorinmaru, running his hand over the cool blade before sheathing it again and flash-stepping back to the dorm, and reentering his Gigai. Hopefully he'd get some answers tomorrow, as unlikely as it was.

* * *

**Me: Right, there it is! Review? Please? Any ideas/suggestions/etc? Oh, and they'll find out what happened to Yumichika next chapter!**

**Yumichika: You're evil. **

**Me: Yep! So, review! You know you want to! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Me: Hey everyone! New chapter! Well.. Obviously. Anyhoo. The questions regarding the Tournament will be answered at the Author's Note at the very bottom of this, so… As for Hanashi Tokoma's review: You have a point… But I don't feel like going back and rewriting it, so… Let's just say Rukia's short, but a normal short for a fifth year. Or something. =] And now…**

**Yumichika: Enjoy!**

**Me: That was my line… But anyhoo, I don't own anything, except for Ruri. This is going to be the first**

**Yumichika: actually, that's the second time..**

**Me: -ignores Yumi- and last time I'm going to say it, so. Now, enjoy, and don't forget to review! Oh, and I'm sure there's a few mistakes somewhere near the end of this chapter, so if you could point them out to me (nicely, not in a flame, please), that would be nice. But now, onto the story! Oh and one more thing: I'm not good with titles for article things, so let's just say Aizen was having a bad day when he wrote the article, okay? So NOWWW you can enjoy this chapter! xD**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

The next few weeks went by as normal as it could be, considering they were at Hogwarts. Rukia noticed that the other two schools that were competing in the Tournament were arriving in less than one month, on October 30, and pointed it out to everyone at their next meeting. That meant that they had to be careful at night when the left their gigais, but no one was too worried about it. All of that changed the next day, though, at breakfast. It all started with Rukia getting the Daily Prophet.

"Hitsugaya, read this," she said, glaring at the paper as she shoved it in front of Toshiro's face. He grabbed the paper and read the small article that Rukia was pointing to.

_Shinigami, Have They Returned?_

_Rumors are being heard that the race of Shinigami, which were previously thought to be extinct, are resurfacing again, after hundreds of years. Shinigami are a race of exiled wizards, who practice a rare type of magic that has been banned for a long time. The rumors haven't been confirmed yet, but in case they are true, watch out for anyone acting suspicious, and report them immediately to the Ministry of Magic. We thank you for your cooperation. _

_Sosuke Aizen_

"What?" Toshiro asked, also glaring at the paper. "Damn Aizen... He's completely taken control over the Ministry, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, it seems so," Rukia said. "But don't do anything."

"I know. We're exchange students from Japan, nothing more," Toshiro replied. It was a good thing they sat apart from the other Ravenclaws. He glanced up at the head table. Ikkaku was reading the paper, not even looking alarmed by anything, but Toshiro could see that he was tense. At the Gryffindor table, the Soul Reapers there were all whispering to themselves.

"Don't worry about it, Hitsugaya," Rukia said, and he rolled his eyes.

* * *

"Aizen," Ichigo muttered darkly as he, Renji, Yumichika, and Ruri finished reading the article. "Damn bastard."

"How did he know that we're here though?" Renji asked.

"It doesn't matter now," Yumichika said. "As far as everyone knows, we're just transfer students, and that's that."

"Well, that's true, but what about Harry and Ron?" Ichigo asked.

"They won't tell anyone," Ruri replied. "But..."

"But what?" Renji said.

"Aizen... the only way he'd be able to get this article published is if he worked in the Ministry or something," she explained. "So somehow, he's either taking over the Ministry, or he already did."

"How can we find out?" Ichigo asked.

"I have an idea," Ruri said. "I'll tell you guys later if it worked or not." She got up and walked over to Harry's group, and sat down next to Hermione.

"Hey, did you hear about those Shinigami?" Harry asked, staring pointedly at her.

"Yeah, that's why I came here," Ruri said. "I was wondering if you knew anything about them, Hermione."

"No, actually, I don't," Hermione replied. "But I'm going to the library during lunch to see if I can find any info on them."

"Hey, maybe we could ask Moody if he knows anything about them," Ron suggested.

"Yeah, but we don't have him until tomorrow," Harry said.

"Hey, Ron, doesn't your dad work in the Ministry?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Maybe he could find out about the Shinigami, and this Aizen guy," Ruri said. "Since he has to be in the Ministry if he got that published, right?"

"I'll send him an owl later," Ron said, and then they left for Ikkaku's class.

They were finally getting down to actual fighting, to Ruri's delight. Everyone had to partner up with someone of the opposite house, because Ikkaku figured that since they hated each other, they would be more willing to fight each other. He had no idea how right he was. Ruri was helping Ikkaku teach the class, and she was watching everyone fight each other. A few people, probably the ones who lived with Muggles, were somewhat good at fighting. Others just sucked at it, and she was sure to tell them that.

"Hey, Ruri, come here," Ikkaku said, and Ruri walked over to him.

"Let me guess, Aizen's little article?" she asked, and he nodded, for once actually being somewhat serious.

"Yeah," he replied. "I asked the other teachers what they knew about Shinigami, and luckily for us, they don't know that much."

"Even Dumbledore?"

Ikkaku nodded. "He only knows a bit about the Soul Society, so it shouldn't be a problem. But, there's Potter and his friends that we gotta worry about."

"Hermione's heading towards the library during lunch," Ruri told him. "But if Dumbledore doesn't know much, then I doubt she's going to find out anything."

"Try to find out if she learns anything, and tell us at the meeting tonight," Ikkaku said. "But onto a different subject, it's like these wizards don't even know how to fight!"

"Makes me wish Captain was here," she replied, laughing. "They wouldn't know what happened to 'em."

"Yeah, they'd be scared shitless," he agreed, then looked at the time before addressing the class. "Hey! You all can stop fighting now!"

"It's pathetic, they're actually _excited _to stop their pitiful excuse for fighting," Ruri said as everyone sighed in relief. "Next time, we need to show them what a _real_ fight looks like."

"Sounds good to me," Ikkaku said, grinning evilly. "And this time, I'll win, shorty."

"Not a chance, cue ball," she replied, and walked over to the trio, who were standing by the door.

"What were you guys talking about?" Harry asked.

"The next class, and what's going to happen," Ruri answered, and didn't say anything more about it, to their disappointment. They went to the rest of their classes, which were uneventful aside from Snape docking 15 points from Gryffindor since someone's potion decided to explode, and then went to lunch. Hermione ate as fast as she could, and disappeared into the library, and was seen at the next class, with a little bit of information on Shinigami.

"I couldn't find a lot of information on these Shinigami, but I did find out some stuff about them," Hermione said.

"Well?" Ron asked impatiently.

"Apparently they don't use magic like we do, they have actual weapons instead of wands," Hermione started.

"Like swords?" Harry said, and she nodded.

"Yeah, or so the book said. And they destroy ghosts and souls, which is why they were exiled all those years ago," she continued. "But they haven't been seen in such a long time, which is why they were thought to be extinct."

"So how do they know that they're back?" Ruri asked.

"Maybe someone saw a Shinigami or something," Hermione said. "I mean, they can't be too hard to miss if they're carrying a sword."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, but they couldn't talk anymore since Binns glided in the classroom and started to drone on about some boring thing that happened however many years ago. Ruri, who was starting to slip into a daydream that she was back in the Seireitei, was jolted out of the dream when Harry nudged her, slipping her a piece of paper. It said, in both Harry and Ron's handwritings, that they wanted to talk to her in private that night. She wrote back underneath it to meet her in the common room at midnight, but that she might be late. Harry nodded, and showed Ron the paper, who crumpled it up and put it away so one noticed it.

The last class of the day ended, and everyone went to the common room. The Soul Reapers, who had claimed a corner for themselves, went their and started working on some of their homework, or so it would seem to the other Gryffindors.

"I got some news," Ruri said, and they all waited for her to continue. "First of all, Ikkaku called a meeting tonight, and he said he'd tell Toshiro and Rukia when they had his class, so we don't have to worry about them knowing."

"Normal time?" Ichigo asked.

"Yep," she replied. "Also, Hermione found out a little bit about Shinigami, but the information's not all that accurate, so…" She told them what Hermione had said she read in the book.

"Well, that shouldn't be a problem if they can't see us," Ichigo said. "Harry and Ron were probably the only ones, but then they sort of appeared in the Soul Society, so…."

"But we don't know for sure that they _can't_ see us," Yumichika pointed out.

"I say, as long as we don't walk right in front of them, we'll be fine," Renji said.

"And if there's a hollow?" Ruri asked.

"Well, I doubt a hollow's going to appear in the middle of a classroom, so," Renji replied.

"But what if it's outside in the middle of the day? Or during one of the Tournament tasks?" Ichigo asked.

"Then we got a problem," Ruri said.

"Lets worry about that when and if it happens," Yumichika suggested. "And for now, just continue to act the way we've been."

"But what about those other two schools that are supposed to be coming here?" Renji asked. "Aren't they coming in a few weeks?"

"Yeah, three weeks," Ichigo said.

"What'd Yumi just say? Act the way we've been? Just because the other schools are coming doesn't mean we should act any differently," Ruri said.

"How many times do I have to tell you to not call me that?" Yumichika asked, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I dunno about you guys, but I actually have work to do," Ichigo stated before they could get into an argument.

"So do I, so that makes two of us, Strawberry," Renji added.

"No one asked you, Pineapple," Ichigo said.

"I don't care if anyone asked me! Besides, it's not like anyone asked you if you had homework."

"Why would someone ask me such a stupid question in the first place?"

"If it was a stupid question, then they'd be stupid to ask it!"

"Thats what I just said, you stupid pineapple!"

"Are they always like that?" Hermione asked, coming over to them.

"Yep, and right about now it starts to get violent," Ruri said.

"You want to take this outside, Strawberry?"

"We can't go outside, dumbass!"

"Then I guess we'll have to fight here!"

"Yeah, I guess we will!"

"Should we try to stop them?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"No, they'll get over it," Yumichika replied.

"If you say so," she said dubiously.

"Well what're you waiting for, Strawberry? Too scared to fight me?"

"Like hell I am! Did you forget that I beat you before?"

"Then if-" Renji was cut off as Ichigo punched him in the face.

"What were you saying me not wanting to fight?" Ichigo smirked, and the two started fighting.

"Yumichika, should we stop them?" Ruri asked, smiling evilly. A crowd had surrounded the two Soul Reapers, and some people were betting on who would win, and others were cheering them on.

"Nope," he replied. "Hey, Hermione, does McGonagall ever come here?"

"Yeah, if there's a fight or something," Hermione said slowly, catching their drift. The Weasley twins, who were nearby, started laughing.

"Getting them in trouble," George said in between laughs.

"And doing so indirectly," Fred continued.

"Is such a brilliant idea," they finished together, and both Ruri and Yumichika looked proud. And to add to the excitement, Professor McGonagall walked into the common room, glaring at Ichigo and Renji. The two hadn't noticed the sudden silence in the common room, and were still fighting and throwing insults at each other.

"Abarai! Kurosaki!" McGonagall shouted, and their fight stopped abruptly as they slowly looked up. Both of their faces slowly turned red, matching Renji's hair, and everyone else in the room tried to suppress their laughs.

"He started it!" Ichigo and Renji both shouted at the same time, pointing at each other.

"Follow me," McGonagall said, glaring at them, and they followed her out of the common room. Once they were out, everyone started laughing.

"Well, that was good for some entertainment," Ruri commented.

"Yes, and their faces were priceless when they saw McGonagall," Yumichika agreed. After a few minutes of talking, they sat down to do some of their homework, and by the time they finished everything nearly everyone had left the common room. Ichigo and Renji had returned, but went up to their dorm without saying anything to them, but they didn't mind. A few more minutes passed until Yumichika pushed back his chair.

"See ya later, Ruri," he said as he got all of his stuff together.

"Yeah, see ya," she replied as she finished writing the last sentence of her Potions essay. She forgot how annoying homework could be. It was just like some of the reports Kenpachi had her do, since he was too lazy to do it himself, and Ikkaku and Yumichika were always too busy to do it. Of course, those reports were rare, since Kenpachi said that unless they HAD to fill out the papers, it was a waste of time. It made Ruri wonder how much work Toshiro had to do, since Rangiku never did any of it herself.

"Oi, Ruri," Ron said, interrupting her thoughts. She looked up from shoving her stuff into her bag. They were the only ones in the common room, which wasn't all that surprising considering how late it was.

"Hm?"

"Don't forget about tonight," said Harry, appearing next to Ron. "In one hour, okay?"

"Oh, that," she replied. "Yeah, I know. But as I said before, I might be a bit late. I have another meeting to go to. But where do you want me to meet you?"

"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, on the seventh floor," Harry answered.

"That way we'll be sure no one's there," Ron added.

"Okay," Ruri said, nodding. "In about one hour then, see ya." She nodded to them, and went up to the girls dorm, where she dropped her stuff by her bed. She quickly changed, and pulled the curtain around her bed, before crawling into said bed and leaving her gigai. As a Soul Reaper, she flash stepped onto the roof of Hogwarts. Everyone was already there and were waiting for her.

"Sorry I'm late," she said as she went to her place next to Yumichika.

"It's fine," Toshiro said. "Now, you and Ikkaku both have information on what the wizards know about us Shinigami, right?"

They both nodded. "I guess I'll go first," Ruri said, then told them what she had told the Gryffindors earlier.

"Well at least the information's not that accurate," Rukia said when she finished.

"But it's close enough," Toshiro said, frowning as usual. "Ikkaku? What did you find out?"

"Not much," Ikkaku replied. "Dumbledore knows a bit about the Seireitei, like the fact that it's been around since way before wizards came along, but other than that he doesn't know that much. He also thinks that Soul Reapers aren't as much as a threat as what Aizen and the Ministry are trying to make us out to be."

"So, should he find out about us, he'd be on our side?" Toshiro asked, and Ikkaku nodded. "Right, well-" He was cut off as the roar of a hollow was heard. All of the Soul Reapers turned to the sound, and saw a hollow coming out of the forest.

"Getsuga tenshou!" Ichigo shouted, pointing Zangetsu at the hollow, which promptly got sliced in half and disappeared. "Now, what were you saying, Toshiro?"

"Show off," Renji muttered, and the temperature around them dropped.

"It's Captain Hitsugaya to you, Kurosaki," Toshiro said, glaring at Ichigo, and after a few seconds, the temperature returned to normal. "As I was saying, even though Dumbledore would most likely be on our side, don't let yourselves be seen as Shinigami, because there still might be those who we can't trust. As for Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, someone will have to explain to them that their friends information is wrong."

"I already told them I'd talk to them tonight," Ruri said.

"Good. Yumichika can go with you," Toshiro replied, and Ruri tried to hide a smile. "I'm sure that they won't tell anyone, Granger included, so you can tell then as much or as little as you want. As for the rest of us, we'll just continue doing things the same way we've been. Except, our meetings will be one every one and a half weeks, unless someone gets some more information that we could use. Also, Rukia and I will try to find out some more information about this Triwizard Tournament that's coming up, and the two other schools that are participating, so we know a little bit about them. Oh, and one more thing. Should another hollow appear, whoever's closer to it will kill it, but make sure that no one can spot your gigai. Any questions? No? Good." Toshiro looked at them before shunpo-ing away. Rukia yawned and followed his lead, along with Ikkaku, Renji and Ichigo, leaving Ruri and Yumichika standing on the roof.

"Well, we still have some time before midnight... I wonder what the view's like from over there." She pointed towards the astronomy tower, and flash stepped to that particular rooftop, and looked around. She could see everything below her, making her feel tall. After staring at the lake for a few seconds, she shunpo-ed back to Yumichika. "You should stand over there. You'd like the view, it's really ... pretty," she said. "What with the lake and everything."

"If you say so," he replied, and flash stepped to the top of the astronomy tower. He stood there a while, gazing out at the lake before joining Ruri again. "I do like this place. It's beautiful, not just the view, but everything else, too."

"More than the Seireitei?" Ruri asked.

"Considering we see the Seireitei every day, yes," Yumichika replied. "Imagine what it's like during the winter, with the castle being covered in snow and everything."

"We'll find out soon enough," she said. "But now we gotta go meet up with Ron and Harry."

"Like this?" he asked, meaning that they were in their Shinigami forms.

"Well... yeah," said Ruri. "But it's not like we're going to be seen; we'll shunpo right there."

"And where exactly are we meeting them?" Yumichika said.

"You'll find out when we get there," Ruri replied, smirking. It would be better if he didn't know that they were going to the unused girls bathroom until it was too late, and he couldn't do anything about it. With that cheerful though, she grabbed his arm, and flash stepped directly into the bathroom. Luckily the ghost was nowhere to be seen.

"... Is this that girls bathroom that no one uses?" Yumichika asked slowly, turning to glare at Ruri, who nodded happily.

"You're gonna regret bringing me here-"

"Actually, Toshiro told you to come with me. I didn't technically bring you here," she said, smiling at him.

"You're so evil, you know that?"

"C'mon, it couldn't hurt you to say damn. You've said it before. And, I'm proud of my evilness, and you know it," she replied.

"They had better be here," said a voice as the door to the bathroom opened and closed. But neither Ruri or Yumichika saw anyone walk in.

"Umm," Ruri said, and nodded as Harry took the invisibility cloak off of him and Ron. "Hi."

"Hey. Now, can you answer our questions?" Harry asked.

"Harry!" shouted a voice, and everyone turned to stare at Moaning Myrtle.

"Another ghost without the soul chain," Ruri muttered. "I'm surprised Toshiro didn't mention them already."

"She's quite ugly," Yumichika said after glancing at the ghost, and turned away from her. Myrtle started sobbing, and Harry and Ron groaned.

"Can you go away, please, Myrtle?" Harry asked "We don't have anything against you-" here both Yumichika and Ron snorted- "or anything, but we're sort of talking about important stuff." The ghost just glared at Harry with hurt eyes, and disappeared into one of the toilets, since there was a huge splash of water. Somehow, the water managed to get a bit of Yumichika's hakama wet, and he freaked out.

"That stupid ghost, making that water get my clothes wet!" Yumichika hissed, glaring at the water stain.

"Yumichika, it's just water, and you can barely tell it's there," Ruri said, attempting to reassure him, but he didn't listen.

"No... The ghost did this on purpose, knowing I despise ugly things! And the one thing I hate most besides ugly things is stained clothes," he went on, and Harry and Ron tried not to smirk.

"But I thought you also hated grass stains? Especially in Rukongai, since no one wore all black there," Ruri said.

"Yes, grass stains, I hate those, too," Yumichika said dismissively. "But this stain-"

"Will come out? Because it's water?" she finished.

"Will _never _come out," he said instead. "And for that, there will be revenge!"

"You're gonna take revenge on a ghost?" Ron asked. "Isn't that like, impossible, because they're already dead?"

"Don't make fun of me because I'm dead!" Myrtle shouted, flying in front of them again.

"Don't worry, me and Yumi are dead, too," Ruri said to her, while thinking, S_o _this _is what Yumi's like when he stays up all night… wow. _And speaking of Yumichika, the Soul Reaper unsheathed his zanpaktou, and pressed the hilt of it to the ghost's forehead.

"Nothing happened," he said, and repeatedly stabbed her with the hilt.

"Maybe it's because there's no soul chain?" Ruri offered. "But what kind of revenge is that, giving her a soul burial?" Myrtle, thinking that they all lost their minds, flew away, but without the splash of water.

"I figured sending her to the Soul Society, to Rukongai, would be revenge enough," Yumichika said, and sheathed his sword. Both of their eyes darkened as they thought of the time they spent there.

"Good reasoning," Ruri said after a moment.

"Do any of you care to explain to us what Rukongai and a soul burial are?" Ron asked impatiently.

"A soul burial is used to send souls that are stuck in this world to the Soul Society," Yumichika explained.

"And Rukongai is where all the souls go," Ruri said. "Its split up into 320 districts, 80 in the north, and 80 in the south, with the last being the worst and most violent, and the first being the complete opposite. Every soul goes there, and some souls go to the Soul Reaper Academy if they want to become Soul Reapers."

"Where were you guys from?" Harry asked.

"73," Ruri said darkly. "Now, what was it you guys wanted to know?

"Ruri and Yumichika spent the next hour or so explaining to Harry and Ron about hollows, their zanpaktous, and other Shinigami related stuff, some of which the wizards already knew about from their 'visit' to the Seireitei.

"So you're not evil?" Ron asked for what must've been the hundredth time.

"No," Ruri said. "Why would we come here to protect you guys if we were evil?"

"Well, I don't have any more questions," Harry said before Ron could say anything. "And I don't think Ron does either, so.."

"Yeah, we all should go get some rest," Ruri said, and they nodded. After thanking them for answering their questions, Ron and Harry disappeared under the cloak, and left the bathroom.

"Well that turned out better than I expected," Ruri said.

"Come on, Ruri, let's go to the common room," Yumichika said. "I can't stand being in this ugly room." She nodded and followed him out of the bathroom. They were silent as they walked to Gryffindor tower, since they didn't want anyone to notice them. They were halfway there when they ran into Filch's cat, who was glaring up at them. The two Shinigami froze, and the cat meowed loudly, running down the stairs. For a few seconds, neither one moved, but when they were sure that no one was coming after them, they started walking again.

"That was close," Yumichika whispered, and Ruri nodded. They were just about to round the corner when they heard footsteps, and a familiar sneering voice. So much for not being noticed, Ruri thought. And Toshiro was definitely going to kill them now, since they blew their cover just hours after he told them to be careful. Damn.

"What have we here? Two students out of bed after curfew, and they're Shinigami?" Snape said, and Ruri and Yumichika slowly turned around. Ruri's hand was coming up to rest on her zanpaktou's hilt, and Yumichika was already gripping his. "Both of you, let go of your swords and follow me. We're going to the headmaster's office."

* * *

**Me: Muahaha! Cliffie! **

**Yumichika: So mean!**

**Me: Nah, I've been wanting to write that last scene for a while now. So I though, hey, why not? Anyhoo, the last parts of it probably suck, because they were written at 12.57 am**

**Yumichika: Again. This isn't the first time she was writing this fic on her iPod.. But it is the first time she finished at 12.57 instead of 3 am…**

**Me: No one asked you, Yumi. Now, awesome readers, will you please review? Also, since I've seen a few reviews about the Shinigami entering the Tournament, just tell me who you want to see enter it, and I'll have him/her be entered in, too. And if there's more than one person that you guys choose, I'll either pick my favorite, or I'll randomly pick one. Don't ask me how, because i don't know yet ;] So it'll be five champions.. But not three for Hogwarts, though! XD**

**Yumichika: Review. Just do it, or Ruri's rants will just get longer with each chapter. **

**Me: Yep! Hope you enjoyed it so far! And in case you didn't get the hint..**

**Me & Yumichika: REVIEWS, PLEASE! =D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Me: Right, here it is. One little note… Hanashi Tokoma: Yeah, Yumichika was all tired, and he makes no sense when tired. And since you're review cracked me up when I read it [hey, it was like, really early in the morning. A lotta things crack me up then] I'm having my character say the clothes-washing line. I hope you don't mind. ;]**

**Yumichika: Well, since she forgot to say anything… thanks for the reviews!**

**Me: Yes! They make me happy, so continue reviewing please! Oh, and if there's any mistakes, please let me know! Thanks! And now, enjoy! **

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**Chapter 4**

Ruri and Yumichika looked at each other before reluctantly letting go of the hilts of their zanpaktous. They sighed and followed Snape to what was probably their doom… if it weren't for the fact that according to Toshiro and Ikkaku, Dumbledore was on the same side as them. The trip to Dumbledore's office seemed to take forever, and it was made worse by Snape's _'ha, your caught!'_ attitude, which ticked off both Soul Reapers. But at last they reached the gargoyles, which jumped aside when Snape said the password, and were up the moving stares and walking into Dumbledore's office.

"These two were walking around the school, and to make things worse, they're Shinigami," Snape said to Dumbledore, who nodded thoughtfully while staring at the two. It was almost as if his gaze went right through them, making them feel vulnerable. And neither one liked the feeling.

"So, you two really are Shinigami?" Dumbledore asked after a moment, and Ruri blinked before nodding. She had thought it was obvious, but maybe he just wanted them to admit it. "Well, sit down, this is probably going to be a long talk, with many explanations. But first, I must ask both of you to hand your swords over to Professor Snape."

"Giving up our zanpaktou is like you giving up your wand," Ruri said. "We don't do it."

"Zanpaktou?" he asked.

"It's the proper name for our swords," Yumichika explained. "It means soul cutter."

"I see," Dumbledore said. "But as much as you wouldn't like to, I'm afraid that you have to give up your zanpaktou, just for this meeting, of course."

"Ruri, let's just do it and get it over with," Yumichika said to her, aware that the two wizards were listening in.

"But it-"

"I know, but for now, we're going to have to deal with it," he said, and handed his sheathed zanpaktou to Snape, all while glaring at the man, of course. Ruri pouted, but took her zanpaktou off of her back and also handed it to Snape. Both of them felt weird without the weight of their zanpaktous, not to mention defenseless, but they could always do Hado if they needed to.

"Good," Dumbledore said. "Now, are all of the exchange students from Japan also Shinigami?" They nodded. "And why are all of you here?"

Ruri glanced at Yumichika before answering. "There's this guy, Sosuke Aizen, who-"

"Didn't he write that article in the Daily Prophet?" Snape asked.

"Yes," she replied. "But anyway, everyone thought he was just any other captain-"

"Captain?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Well, at the Seireitei, which is where we Shinigami are from, there's 13 court guard squads, and the Head Captain's the first squad's captain. Anyway, after captain is lieutenant, and then there's 20 seated officers in a squad, and the rest are just … there," Ruri explained.

"Before you continue about this Aizen, do you mind telling me which squads you and the other Shinigami are in?" he asked.

"Well, Toshiro Hitsugaya's the 10th division captain, Renji's the lieutenant of the 6th squad, Ikkaku's third seat of squad 11, Yumichika's the fifth seat and I'm the 6th seat of the same squad," she said. "Rukia's in the 13th squad, but she's not seated, and Ichigo's a substitute soul reaper, so he's not in any squad."

Dumbledore looked impressed, and he told her to go on.

"Right, so Aizen used to be the captain of the 5th squad, until one day he faked his death. Later on, he, along with ex-Captain Gin Ichimaru of Squad 3 and ex-Captain Kaname Tousen of Squad 9 made their appearance as traitors, and went to Las Noches... In Hueco Mundo."

"Hueco Mundo is basically where all the hollows, or the souls that go evil so to say, are," Yumichika said. "And what Ruri forgot to mention was that Aizen took the Hougyoku, which is this thing that makes things..."

"Super powerful? We don't really know," Ruri said, shrugging. "But he stole it, and is using it's power. And he also has this army of arrancar, which are hollows that had it's mask taken off."

"Also, the ten strongest arrancar are known as Espada, and they're really hard to kill," Yumichika added.

"So this Aizen is like our Voldemort?" Dumbledore asked.

"If Voldemort's trying to take over the world and become god, then yes," he replied.

"Aizen's goal is to create the ouken, or the King's Key, so he can enter the Spirit King's realm, kill said king, and once he's done that, he's basically god," Ruri explained when she noticed Dumbledore's confused look.

"All the Dark Lord wants to do is just kill people, especially Harry Potter, but they both do sound similar, so if anyone asks, your Aizen is like our Voldemort," Dumbledore said.

"If anyone asks?" Snape asked, voicing the Shinigami's thoughts.

"Yes," he replied, then focused back on the two shinigami.

"So basically, we're here to make sure that Aizen doesn't somehow come in contact with this Voldy guy, who we've been told is not even alive," Ruri said, leaving out the part about protecting Harry.

"And Aizen is trying to make that harder for you to do by having that article published," said Dumbledore.

"Yes; and Captain Hitsugaya thinks that Aizen might be taking over the Ministry, probably to figure out where we are so he could kill us," Yumichika said, saying the last part slowly, since he just thought of it.

"Yeah, like he could kill us," Ruri replied. "We have Ichigo's and Renji's AND Toshiro's bankai. Oh yeah, and Ikkaku's bankai."

"And he has his, Ichimaru's, and Tousen's," Yumichika pointed out.

"But if we just close our eyes and randomly lash out, then Aizen's zanpaktou will have no effect on us," she said. "As for Ichimaru's, I don't think I ever saw it, but for Tousen's, we'd just have to ask Captain how he managed to defeat him and we'll be good! But, it wouldn't even be that hard for Aizen to take over the Ministry. All he has to do is use his shikai…."

"Excuse me, but what's this bankai and shikai?" Dumbledore asked.

"Our zanpaktou have two release states: shikai and bankai. You do shikai by saying your zanpaktous name, and it's command, and bankai simply by saying bankai," Yumichika explained.

"Like, if I were to release my zanpaktou, I would say _'Strike now, Kaminari ōkami,'_" Ruri said. "Everyone's zanpaktou is different, so the commands and names are different. Oh, and as we release it, our zanpaktou also change form so that they don't look like katanas like they do in their sealed state."

"I would ask for you to show me, but…" Dumbledore trailed off.

"You don't trust us," Yumichika said simply, and ruined everything by yawning. And since it was so rare to see Yumichika yawn, Ruri started laughing, which for some reason made Yumichika laugh, too. So for about two or three minutes, the Shinigami were laughing uncontrollably, for a reason unknown to the wizards, who calmly looked on. Finally, they stopped laughing.

"Ruri, why were we just laughing?" Yumichika asked.

"You yawned. It's a very un-Yumichika-ish thing to do," she replied, giggling. "And then I had a random thought, which involved Captain seeing us here, doing a Q and A, without our zanpaktous on us, which made me think of _him_ being in this position, and Yachiru was there… and…. well... Yeah. Wait, why were you laughing?"

"Does it matter?" Snape interrupted, which was a good thing because if he didn't, the giggle fest would've happened again. The Shinigami got the last laughs out of their system, and looked at him. "How do you know about the Dark Lord being alive, but not actually alive?"

"We were told that when we were given the mission," Ruri answered, shrugging, then froze as she and Yumichika heard an all too familiar sound of a hollow roaring. Except this time, it was a...

"Menos," Ruri and Yumichika said at the same time, then leaped out of their chairs.

"We'll be right back, we gotta go kill some Menos," Ruri said, grinning. "Oh, and we'll need our zanpaktou back." At Dumbledore's nod, Snape handed them both their zanpaktou.

"If you don't mind, we're going to watch you," Dumbledore said.

"Fine, just don't get in our way," Yumichika replied, also smiling.

"That really should be the Squad 11 motto," Ruri said, then flash stepped to Outside of the castle, and Yumichika appeared right behind her. A few seconds later, Dumbledore and Snape walked outside, and they both gasped when they saw the three Menos that were appearing. The shinigami jumped into the air while unsheathing their zanpaktou, and they each ran towards a different Menos. Yumichika sliced up his hollow a few times before it finally decided to die, and he stood back to watch Ruri kill the other two. She was flash stepping in between the two, slowly slicing them up, and then she jumped up, swinging her zanpaktou with her, killing both of them at the same time. She sheathed her zanpaktou and jumped back to Yumichika.

"There should've been more," she complained. "Two was barely enough. But anyway, why were they here?"

"I don't know," Yumichika replied. "But I think Dumbledore and Snape are starting to wonder why we're not back yet."

Ruri looked down, and saw the two wizards talking, and they kept glancing up at them. She turned back to Yumichika. "Come on, let's go. Hopefully they'll let us go back to bed."

"Yeah, and luckily for us, there aren't any classes tomorrow," he said before jumping down to the ground. She followed him, landing behind them.

"That was a hollow?" Dumbledore asked, and they nodded.

"If this Aizen has an army of them, I don't see what the big deal is," Snape said. "You killed them off easily enough."

"He has more powerful hollows, arrancar, and Espada," Ruri replied, and she and Yumichika started explaining things again. At last, the wizards finally understood about hollows and Aizen's army, and they all walked back to Dumbledore's office.

"Do you mind if I call you two back here tomorrow, along with the rest of the Shinigami?" Dumbledore asked.

Yumichika glanced at Ruri, who had the _'why bother ask, it's not like we have a choice'_ look on her face. "No, it's fine," he said.

"Good," said Dumbledore. "Now, since you're both probably tired, I suggest you go back to your dorms."

They nodded, and walked out of the office. As soon as the door closed, they flash stepped to the Gryffindor common room.

"What was the whole point of even going there if we were just going to leave?" Ruri asked. "Well anyway, see ya later, Yumichika."

"Night, Ruri," Yumichika replied. "Hey wait. You must really be tired if you didn't call me Yumi."

"You miss it, Yumi?" she said, and laughed. "Well, you're also really tired, because if you think that water is a stain, what happens when you wash your clothes? But anyhoo, g'night Yumi!" Ruri smirked and left for the girls dorm. Yumichika rolled his eyes and headed to the guys dorm, thankful that he could finally get some rest.

* * *

Toshiro woke up, and automatically knew something was... off. He wasn't sure what, but something definitely happened over the course of the night, and he would know the result of this something as soon as he went down to breakfast. It was always like that, and Toshiro tried to prepare himself for the worst. But since he wasn't sure what could've happened, that sort of failed. But at least he attempted to try.

A few minutes later, he was walking towards the Great Hall, and his sense of doom was growing by the second. He was one of the last few people walking into the Great Hall, and when he walked in, he noticed Ruri glance at him quickly before turning back to her food. His feeling of unease magnified a few hundred times.

He sat down at the Ravenclaw table across from Rukia, who was already done eating, and dug into his cereal. A few minutes after he finished, he and Rukia left, and started walking aimlessly around the castle. Actually, they were heading towards the library to start finding out some information on the tournament, but they didn't exactly feel like doing any research, so they were walking slowly. Until a third year walked up to them and told them that they were wanted in Dumbledore's office, that is. And Toshiro knew that it could only mean one thing, and it would end with someone being frozen. So, with that cheerful thought, Toshiro turned around, and he and Rukia started up the stairs to the headmasters office. When they walked in, they saw that everyone else was already there, and the two sat down in the last two chairs.

"Do you all know why you're here?" Dumbledore asked, and Toshiro noticed that everyone except for Ruri and Yumichika shook their heads. Whatever it was, he knew now who to blame. "Well, you're secret that you're all Shinigami is out, though no one except for myself and Professor Snape know." The temperature dropped a little bit as Toshiro narrowed his eyes.

"So, who screwed up this time?" Ichigo asked after a few seconds of shocked silence. "Because it definitely wasn't me."

"Yes, _Ruri_, _Yumichika_, who screwed up?" Toshiro repeated, glaring at the two while the temperature plummeted. Everyone except for him and Rukia, who also had an ice zanpaktou, shivered.

"Well, it's not like it's exactly our fault, Captain Hitsugaya," Ruri said nervously. Both her face and Yumichika's were red.

"You're right," Toshiro said, and paused before continuing. "It's _completely_ your fault!"

"Sorry?" she asked.

"Freezing us to death isn't going to solve anything, Captain, and the situation we're in isn't even that bad," Yumichika added. The temperature around the two dropped even more as the other parts of the room started to warm up again.

"Y-you're not actually taking his advice and f-freezing us to death, are you?" Ruri said, her teeth chattering as she shivered.

"Quit overreacting, Toshiro," Ichigo said, and was caught with a blast of ice cold air.

"That's Captain Hitsugaya to you," Toshiro replied, glaring at him.

"And it's snowing over Ruri and Yumichika," Renji pointed out. They looked over at the two, who were glaring at the snow as it poured over them. Toshiro sighed, and the snowing stopped as the temperature rose until it reached the normal room temperature. The snow, to both of the two Soul Reaper's horror, had melted, soaking their clothes. But then, snow caused by Toshiro's spiritual pressure wasn't just going to disappear, so they should've expected it.

"You're going to pay for that, Hitsugaya," Yumichika muttered darkly as he glared at his wet clothes.

"What was that, Ayasegawa?" Toshiro asked.

"Nothing," he said quickly.

Dumbledore coughed, regaining their attention. "They're right; it isn't a big deal. Ruri and Yumichika explained to me why you're all here, and a little about Soul Reapers. As long as none of the students get hurt, I'm fine with you staying here."

"You're lucky," Toshiro said to Ruri and Yumichika, who sighed in relief. He was about to ask Dumbledore a question when his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and answered it while everyone stared at him, wondering who it was. Dumbledore wondered how it could even work in Hogwarts.

"Captain Hitsugaya," Toshiro said when he picked up. "Yes... Yes, I know about it..." He saw everyone looking at him and he mouthed the words _'head captain.' _They all nodded in understanding before wondering why Yamamoto would call Toshiro. "What? Are you sure about this, sir? ...I'll try, but I doubt it'll work... He is? Do you know this for sure? ...Yes, I'll have them all, just in case... Which one? Okay." Toshiro mouthed _'Zaraki, he wants to talk to both of you' _as he handed the phone to Yumichika. Ruri leaned over so she could also hear the phone.

"Yeah, we're both here," Ruri said. A few seconds passed.

"We didn't mean to get-" Yumichika started, then sighed. Then both of them gasped.

"But why him?" Ruri asked, then rolled her eyes as they heard the answer. She and Yumichika suddenly paled, and they're eyes widened. "But... Yes, Captain." Yumichika repeated her, and then closed the phone and handed it back to Toshiro.

"What'd he say?" Renji asked. "You're both so pale and shocked and terrified."

"Yeah, and normally Zaraki doesn't have that affect on ya," Ikkaku added.

"We're both facing Senbonzakura- Bankai style," Ruri said, and everyone winced.

"Byakuya's coming here?" Rukia asked, and they nodded. "When? And why?"

"If Captain came, he's probably end up killing everyone by accident," Ruri replied. "So he told Byakuya to come instead of him, though he said he might drop by."

"He, that is, Captain Kuchiki, is coming later today, to clear up some things with Professor Dumbledore," Toshiro explained. "Also, the Head Captain wants one of us to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. Apparently they've gotten word that the Voldemort guy is going to try something, and that Aizen might show up."

"You're all too young, though," Dumbledore said.

"We're not, actually. Well, aside from Ichigo, we all died, and we all spent years in Rukongai before becoming Shinigami," Rukia replied. "Though we look young, we're not."

"Why is Ichigo the exception?" Dumbledore asked, and Ichigo explained how he was only half-Shinigami. When he was finished, Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "It would still look suspicious if one of you were able to enter in your name, and even more suspicious if you got picked."

"Head Captain Yamamoto said that he'd come up with an excuse for us if we needed it," Toshiro explained.

"Well, I have one more question for you. This person who's coming here..."

"Byakuya Kuchiki," Renji said.

"Yes, how exactly is he arriving?" Dumbledore asked.

"Give me one second," Toshiro said, and got out his phone again. He dialed a number, repeated the question, and listened for a while before hanging up. "He'll be coming through a Senkaimon, which is how we travel from the Soul Society to this world. It'll appear at noon in the back of the castle so it'll be least likely to be spotted."

"In two hours, then. In an hour and a half, meet me there. Professors Snape and McGonagall will also be there," said Dumbledore. "Oh, and come in your Shinigami forms, but make sure that no one can find your Gigais.. Actually, go to this room." He told them about the Room of Requirement and how to get there. He also said that they would have to Shunpo everyone there so they weren't seen.

* * *

_Hour and 56 minutes later, in the back of Hogwarts castle..._

"I wish I was dead," Ruri said, sighing, as they waited for Byakuya to show up. The professors were there, and McGonagall was filled in on everything.

"You are," Ichigo told her.

"Hey! Ichigo, didn't you fight Kuchiki before, and you both went Bankai?" Ruri asked him suddenly. Yumichika stopped talking to Ikkaku to listen.

"Well, yeah, and it was freakin' painful!" he replied.

"Damn," Yumichika and Ruri muttered in unison. McGonagall glared at them, but didn't say anything.

"This is so boring," Renji complained. "And how did they even know that we were found out in the first place?"

"He'll be here in three minutes, Renji," Rukia said. "As for the second question…. That's actually a good one, for once."

"Well, it's still boring. I mean, do you know what I could be doing right now?" he asked.

"Doing us all a favor and shutting up?" Toshiro replied, and everyone laughed. Renji pretended to be offended and turned away from Toshiro, muttering _'I see how it is,' _under his breath.

"Thirty more seconds," Ruri said after a while.

"You sound like your counting down the seconds till the world ends," Ichigo remarked.

"Well for us, it is," she retorted.

"A little bit of pain never hurts," Ikkaku said.

"This isn't a little bit of pain, Ikkaku," Yumichika replied.

"Its Bankai Senbonzakura. In other words, a whole lot of freakin' pain," Ruri added. "There is a difference, you know."

"Well it's about damn time," Renji interrupted, and they looked as the Senkaimon appeared. The doors slid open, and Byakuya Kuchiki walked out, glaring at them all in that _'I'm a noble and I'm better than you'_ way. The Senkaimon behind him disappeared, and Ruri and Yumichika slowly backed away. Well, Ruri hid behind Renji, and Yumichika just stood there behind everyone else with Ikkaku. But he did move back a step.

"You must be Captain Byakuya Kuchiki," Dumbledore said.

"Yes," Byakuya replied. "And you're Albus Dumbledore? I have a letter from the Head Captain for you." He took out the mentioned letter from some hidden pocket and handed it to Dumbledore.

"Well, before I read this, I suggest we all go to the Room of Requirement before someone notices us," Dumbledore said.

Ruri and Yumichika shunpo-ed away, leaving the others to flash step with one of the professors. Soon enough, they were all in the Room of Requirement, which looked like the training ground underneath Urahara's shop- land, sky, everything. The Shinigami's gigais were all under some tent thing that Rukia told them they should put up. Why? They didn't know, bit they didn't want to face an angry Rukia, so they listened to her.

"I'm guessing the other reason why we're here is so that Aruteru and Ayasegawa can receive their punishment without drawing too much attention?" Byakuya asked, and Dumbledore gave him the _'sure, whatever you say'_ nod before reading the letter. The two Soul Reapers in question gulped.

"Don't worry, you'll live," Ikkaku told them.

"Says you! You're Not the one facing a horrible painful and pink bankai!" Ruri said, but didn't say anymore as Yumichika told her that they were facing their doom now. With one last look at the other Soul Reapers, they turned around and followed Byakuya away from everyone else. At least he was nice and didn't make them suffer while the others, and the professors, watched.

"Both of you, stand away from each other," Byakuya said once they stopped, and they gulped before walking in the opposite direction. He unsheathed his zanpaktou and dropped it, saying Bankai before it sunk into the ground, and tons of blades slowly came out of the ground. "Scatter, Senbonzakura kageyoshi."

* * *

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were hidden in the Room of Requirement, under the invisibility cloak. They made perfect timing, entering the room when they did. Harry had noticed people in a room that he never noticed before on the Marauder's Map, and when he told Ron and Hermione, they decided to check it out. It didn't help that it was the Japanese transfers, either, including Ikkaku, and Hermione was curious about them. Harry and Ron didn't say anything about them, and went with it. So, they had snuck in, and where shocked when they saw the Gigais lying on the floor. Well, Hermione was shocked, and Harry and Ron pretended to be. The boys were wondering where they went, and they got their answer as they all appeared in the room, along with Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall, and someone else who they didn't recognize. They all had walked somewhere else, so they could whisper without being heard, but still have an eye on them.

"Who are they? And how did they all appear like that? It wasn't Apparition, since you can't apparate in Hogwarts, it's impossible..." Hermione said, thinking. "And who was that man they brought with them? And what did Ruri and Yumichika do that they need to be punished? Why does that man have to punish them, shouldn't they just get a detention or something?"

"Hermione, slow down," Ron said. "You-"

"Thats it!" Hermione interrupted, her eyes lighting up. "They're all Shinigami! Why else would they all carry those swords? But why is Dumbledore letting them stand there with their swords and everything?"

"Maybe the article was wrong or something," Harry said. "Or he doesn't find them dangerous."

"But why are Ruri and Yumichika getting punished by the scarf guy?" Ron asked.

"Probably because they got themselves caught," Hermione replied after a second, and Harry and Ron looked at each other. They were both thinking the same thing: _W__as it because we asked to meet up with them, and they were spotted going back to the common room? _

"Since they're Shinigami, that probably explains how they just appeared here. They might have their own way of moving from place to place," Hermione went on. "But what about that man with the white sleeveless robe thing that he has? And why is it that only Toshiro has one, and the others don't?"

"You know, it's rude to talk about people behind their backs," said a voice behind them, and the trio quickly spun around, the invisibility cloak falling off as they turned. It was Ichigo who had spoken, and now he knew that they were all there.

"Uh, McGonagall's heading our way, guys," Ron pointed out.

"Why are you even here?" Ichigo asked, crossing his arms.

"Yes, that is a good question," said McGonagall as she approached the group.

"We were just..." Hermione faltered, trying to think of an excuse without saying anything about the Map. "We noticed them walking into this room, so we followed them, since we were curious."

"And you conveniently had the Invisibility Cloak with you?" McGonagall asked, and the trio looked away.

_"Bankai. Scatter, Senbonzakura kageyoshi."_

"Sucks for them," Ichigo muttered, then looked at McGonagall. "Can you do a shield thing or something around us, in case a few of Byakuya's blades somehow end up here?"

"Protego," McGonagall said, flicking her wand, and they all saw a slight shimmer as the shield surrounded them. "You three, detention for a month. And Potter, give me your cloak."

"But-" Harry started, then handed over the cloak when the full force of her glare hit him.

"After this is all over, come to my office. We have things to discuss about them," the professor continued.

"Are they Shinigami?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, we are, but we're not all evil and psycho like what you probably think from reading Aizen's article," Ichigo replied, glaring when he said Aizen's name.

"Everything will be explained to you later," McGonagall said before turning and walking away.

"So what now?" Ron asked.

"Come with me," Ichigo said. "You might get some answers." The trio followed him to where the other Shinigami were standing. By the time Ruri and Yumichika returned, Hermione had gotten a lot of answers. The trio turned around when the two Shinigami walked over to the group, and they all gasped while the others just winced.

"Shit, this sucks," Ruri complained, throwing a glare at Byakuya, who was talking to the professors.

"You really shouldn't say such an ugly word," Yumichika said. "Though, this could be an exception..."

"You guys should be healed right away," Hermione interrupted, staring at them.

"Then what would be the whole point of getting sliced up?" Ruri asked. "I mean, this would all be pointless if we were going to get healed right away. And besides, we've both been through worse, so it's not that big of a deal."

"Not big of a deal?" Hermione shrieked, ignoring the_ 'we've been through worse'_ part. "It _is_ a big deal-"

"Look, Rukia has bandages, Hermione," Harry pointed out, and sure enough, Rukia was walking towards them, her arms full of bandages. Several minutes later, after an attempted fist fight and Ikkaku knocking both Yumichika and Ruri unconscious, the dust cleared and the two Shinigami were covered in bandages.

"They should still be healed, but I guess that works," Hermione muttered, not exactly agreeing with them, but not wanting to annoy them, either.

"It will... Until they wake up," Ikkaku said.

"Thats when you run," Renji added. "Trust us."

**Me: Remember to review! And if you hadn't put down who you want to see in the Tournament, write that in your review, too! It should be coming up soon!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Me: Thanks for all the reviews! As for the Triwiz Tournament… It was hard to choose who should be the other champion.. I think I made the right choice, though, since it just wouldn't fit with Toshiro, though I really did want to make him the champion… Don't kill me if you don't like it! **

**Yumichika: I don't think they'd kill you.. They still would want this story to be updated**

**Me: Good point, Yumi. Oh, and a few more things. I was too lazy to do Fleur's weird accent thing, so I just had her talk normally. Also, after a lot of thinking, I decided to get rid of Cedric, because once I was writing about the argument about Hogwarts' extra champion, it just didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. So, the chosen Shinigami replaced him, but don't worry, they won't die! And somehow, Cedric will…. If I can somehow manage to make that work…**

**Yumichika: You really want to kill off Cedric, don't you?**

**Me: Yep! Now, onto the story! Enjoy, and don't forget to review!**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

The Shinigami, including Byakuya and excluding Ruri and Yumichika, all agreed with Dumbledore that the Soul Reapers should all enter in their names for the Triwizard Tournament. The other schools were arriving in one week, giving Ruri and Yumichika time to heal. Byakuya said he had to return to the Seireitei, and he flash stepped away, and the three professors left the room, leaving everyone to hang out in the Room of Requirement. Hermione was asking Rukia and Toshiro a whole bunch of questions about the Shinigami, and she learned a lot of information. In return, she told them what she knew about the Triwizard Tournament, which was basically what Dumbledore had said on the first day of school.

The next few days passed, until it was finally the 30th of October. Everyone was excited about the arrival of the schools, even the Shinigami. At last, everyone went outside, lined up in rows according to their year. The Gryffindor Soul Reapers hung out together, and waited impatiently for the other schools to arrive. Everyone else was muttering their ideas on how they were going to be arriving, when all of a sudden, Dumbledore announced that the people from Beauxbatons were arriving.

Sure enough, a huge carriage was being pulled through the air by a dozen, huge, winged horses. It crash landed on the ground, and a few seconds later, a huge ("Is everything about this school huge?" Ichigo asked) woman walked out, and Dumbledore introduced her as Madame Maxime. A few minutes later, a ship emerged from the lake, and glided towards the bank. The Durmstrang students walked out, and after introducing Karkaroff ("Thats such a weird name," said Ruri), they all walked back into the castle and into the Great Hall, where they all started eating.

"So I guess we're gonna find out more about this Tournament thing after everyone finishes eating," Ichigo said.

"Yeah, probably," Renji replied. "I wonder who's picking out the people?"

"We'll find out sooner or later. Hey, is this stuff even edible?" Ruri pointed to some weird dessert thing.

"Eat it. If you die, then no, but if you live then yes," Ichigo replied.

"I'm sure it's edible, even if _does_ look disgusting," Yumichika said, but the Soul Reapers decided not to eat it, just to be safe. About a minute or so later, Dumbledore stood up and introduced the judges, and gave a speech about the Tournament. Then Filch brought in the chest, and Dumbledore took out the Goblet of Fire, stating that anyone who wanted to enter would have 24 hours to do so, but there would be an Age Line so that no one underage could submit their name. With that, everyone was dismissed. The Shinigami left the Great Hall and met up on one of the sets of stairs.

"Everyone, write down your names and meet up in the Entrance Hall at 1 am exactly," Toshiro said as they climbed up the stairs.

"Will do," Renji replied, smirking. Then they split up as Toshiro and Rukia headed in the opposite direction to the Ravenclaw common room.

* * *

_1 am, Entrance Hall_

"I just realized something," Ichigo said as they walked up to the Goblet of Fire. Everyone was in their pajamas, since they didn't want to be seen as Shinigami, and they all spent a few minutes making fun of each other's clothes before actually remembering why they were standing there in the first place.

"What?" Toshiro asked, turning to him.

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't enter my name in, since I actually _am_ underage," he replied.

"Then we'll put in our names, and you can watch," Rukia said, shrugging at him. Ichigo glared at her, but watched anyway as the other Soul Reapers crossed the Age Line without trouble and put the slips of paper into the Goblet. Then, as they started to head back to the stairs, Toshiro suddenly spun around, narrowing his eyes at something everyone else didn't see.

"Toshiro?" Ruri asked after a moment.

"Someone's here," he replied, looking around. "Probably following us..."

"Who?" Renji asked.

"If he knew, he would've said so," Yumichika said, and Toshiro nodded.

"Well, whoever it is could just come out of hiding now, since it's obvious that we know they're there," Ichigo said, scowling as usual.

"Well at least you know when someone's there," said a voice, and Moody walked out of the shadows, his magical eye staring at each of them in turn.

"So you weren't following us, then, Professor?" Rukia asked.

"No... Just taking a walk," he replied after a moment. Toshiro raised his eyebrow disbelievingly. A walk that's right by the Goblet of Fire?_ Right. _Then he wondered, not for the first time, if Moody's magical eye could see through their gigais.

"Well, we have to go back to our common rooms, so," Toshiro said, trailing off. Moody nodded, and the Shinigami all hurried up the stairs. Once they were sure that Moody couldn't see or hear them, they started talking.

"Do you think he saw us put in our names?" Renji asked.

"Probably, with that weird eye of his," Ichigo replied.

"There's something about him, I'm not quite sure what it is, but I don't think he should be trusted," Toshiro said. "It's just a feeling I have."

"Why? Do you think he can see through our Gigais or something like that?" Rukia asked him.

"If his eye can see through everything else, then probably. But if that's the case, he hasn't mentioned anything yet..." he replied.

"We could probably use Ikkaku to get information on him again," Yumichika suggested.

"That's a good idea," said Ruri.

"I agree. Tell him about it whenever you get the chance," Toshiro said. "But be careful when you're around Moody, in any case."

* * *

The next day, the Shinigami all hung out in Ikkaku's class, since they had nothing better to do. Ikkaku and Ichigo were sparring, Renji and Rukia were talking, along with Ruri and Yumichika, and Toshiro was sitting on the windowsill, looking bored.

"Hey, Yumichika," Ruri said. "You have competition."

"Um, what?" Yumichika asked, looking at her oddly.

"I heard at breakfast someone calling that Cedric Diggory guy 'Pretty-Boy,'" she replied, smirking. "Seems like you're not the only one obsessed with your looks."

"Isn't that the Hufflepuff who apparently entered in his name?" he said, and Ruri nodded. "He's ugly."

"What a nice way to put it, even though it _is _true," she agreed. Then, after a few minutes, "I'm bored."

"You get bored a lot," Yumichika commented.

"This place is boring," she said, shrugging.

"I agree!" shouted Renji from the other side of the room.

"Where you eavesdropping on us?" Ruri asked in a shocked way, but it was ruined by her smirk.

"Maybe!"

"Wanna fight?"

"Hell yeah!" Renji grabbed two swords and tossed one to Ruri before telling Ikkaku and Ichigo to go somewhere else to fight. Ikkaku stabbed him in response.

"It's not so boring now, is it?" Yumichika asked, and Ruri looked at him.

"You're next, after I beat the crap out of the Pineapple," she said, laughing.

* * *

_Great Hall_

"Finally!" Ichigo said as the Goblet of Fire turned red. Dumbledore read out Viktor Krum as the Durmstrang champion and Fleur Delacour for Beauxbatons.

"The Hogwarts champion is… Rukia Kuchiki," Dumbledore called out, and everyone started clapping. Rukia got up from the Ravenclaw table and walked into the room that the other champions disappeared to, smiling.

"Good, it's not the ugly one," Yumichika commented as Cedric Diggory along with the other Hufflepuffs practically deflated. Dumbledore started talking once again, but was stopped as a piece of paper floated out of the Goblet.

"Harry Potter."

The Great Hall erupted into whispers as Harry looked around blankly saying that he didn't put his name in, and the Shinigami started muttering to each other, all wondering how Harry had managed to get his name put into the Goblet, considering he definitely wasn't of age.

"Harry, up here, please," Dumbledore said, and Harry hesitantly walked up. The Shinigami were all staring intently at Dumbledore like everyone else was, but Ichigo noticed that Moody seemed to be almost ... pleased, and whispered that to the others before turning his attention back to the front of the Great Hall.

"Well, through the door," Dumbledore continued, and Harry walked behind the table and going through the door that the others had gone through earlier. Rukia looked at him oddly, and Fleur asked him if they had to go back into the hall, but Harry didn't have time to answer her before the Ludo Bagman guy grabbed him.

"Ladies, gentleman, may I introduce the fourth Triwizard champions, Harry Potter?" he asked. The champions looked at Bagman, then at Harry oddly. Fleur was the first to speak, saying how apparently it was a very funny joke.

"Joke? No, both his names came out of the Goblet of Fire," Bagman told them. They all still looked slightly confused.

"But he is too young to compete," Fleur insisted. "There has to be a mistake."

"Well..." Bagman trailed off as the door opened, and Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, and Crouch walked in.

"Madame Maxime!" Fleur said, walking over to the headmistress. "They say that this little boy is competing!" Rukia smirked the slight glare Harry sent in Fleur's direction.

"What's the meaning of this, Dumbledore?" Madame Maxime asked.

"I'd rather like to know that myself," said Karkaroff, who was obviously pissed off, even if he didn't show it. "_Two _Hogwarts champions? I don't remember anyone telling me the host school is allowed two champions- or have I not read the rules carefully enough?"

"It's impossible," Maxime said. "Hogwarts cannot have two champions. It is most unjust."

"We were under the impression that your Age Line would keep out younger contestants, Dumbledore," Karkaroff continued, his eyes cold. "Otherwise we would, of course, have brought along a wider selection of candidates from our schools."

"It is no ones fault but Potter's," Snape said, glaring at Harry.

"Thank you, Severus," Dumbledore said before Snape could go on, no doubt trying to get Harry into trouble, Rukia thought. Dumbledore turned to face Harry. "Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?"

"No," Harry replied.

"Did you ask an older student to put it into the Goblet of Fire for you?"

"_No_," he insisted.

"But of course he is lying!" Maxime said.

"He could not have crossed the Age Line," said McGonagall sharply. "I'm sure we all agreed on that."

"Dumbledore must've made a mistake with the line," Maxime replied, shrugging.

"It is possible, of course," Dumbledore said, which seemed to piss off McGonagall.

"Dumbledore, you know perfectly well that you did not make a mistake," the Transfiguration professor replied angrily. "Harry could not have crossed the line himself, and as Professor Dumbledore believes that he didn't persuade an older student to do it for him, I'm sure that should be good enough for everybody else!" She glared at Snape, and both Rukia and Harry suppressed their smirks.

They continued arguing about the matter until Moody entered the room, and the conversation turned to how Harry's name could've been put into the Goblet. At last, they all seemed to just accept that Hogwarts was going to have two champions, and they were told the date of the first task- the 24th of November. Soon after, everyone started leaving the room, and Dumbledore turned to Harry and Rukia, who were the only ones left.

"Rukia, Harry, I suggest you go up to bed," Dumbledore said, smiling at both of them. "I'm sure Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise."

Rukia and Harry looked at each other, and left together.

"You didn't put your name in, did you?" Rukia asked after a while.

"No, I didn't," Harry replied.

"Don't worry, I believe you," Rukia said quickly. "But if that's the case, do you have any idea of who might've put your name in the Goblet?"

"Well…" Harry thought back to what Moody said, about someone wanting him dead. "There's Voldemort, but there's no way he could be here, and I know that Wormtail's not here either…"

Rukia nodded slowly, before saying 'good night' as she went up a different set of stairs to get to the Ravenclaw common room. As soon as she walked in, a huge group of Ravenclaws started cheering her on and offering her butterbeers. Somehow she managed to escape the mob without using Kido, and went to Toshiro, who filled her in about what Ichigo had noticed about Moody. He also said that they would all have a meeting in two nights, in the Room of Requirement.

* * *

The next two days were somewhat exciting for Rukia, and hell for Harry. Everyone was surprised that a transfer was the champion for Hogwarts, and kept telling Rukia that she'd better win. Harry, on the other hand, was constantly being glared at, with the exceptions of Hermione and the Soul Reapers. A few of the Shinigami (namely Ichigo and Ruri) kept getting pulled aside by one of the Trio and had to endure a long rant that either consisted of _'Why is it always Harry that gets the spotlight?' _or _'What's that git's problem? I didn't put my name in the damn Goblet!' _and to Ruri specifically, _'Why are guys so stubborn and stupid?'_ Needless to say, both Ichigo and Ruri weren't seen during breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and Ruri made a point to sit away from the Trio during class.

That night, they all met up in the Room of Requirement right after curfew, so they could not only have the meeting, but also get a chance to unwind. Of course, Toshiro insisted that the meeting came first, and told Renji and Ichigo to put away their zanpaktous, which earned him some glares.

"This Moody guy," Toshiro started once everyone surrounded him. "Did any of you find out anything about him?"

"Besides the obvious stuff?" Ruri asked. "Like the whole ex-Dark wizard catcher-er fact? Wait... Ignore the extra er."

"Yes, besides the obvious," he replied. "Like why he would seem to be happy that Potter is the fourth champion."

"In that room, he was talking about why someone would put Harry's name in there," Rukia said. "He said something about someone wanting Harry dead, and the Tournament would be a good excuse, since it's supposed to be dangerous."

"So he wants Harry dead? I thought he was on Dumbledore's side," Renji said.

"He is, or so he said," Ikkaku replied. "And Dumbledore seems to be sure that Moody's on his side, too."

"But what if that's all a lie or something? Like if he's pulling an Aizen?" Ruri asked, making everyone pause and think about the possibility.

"If that's true, then why would-" Ichigo started.

"Surely he isn't that stupid, telling everyone what he did?" Yumichika asked, interrupting Ichigo, who glared at him.

"Of course," Toshiro muttered, and everyone waited for him to continue, which he did after a few seconds. "Moody's supposed to be an ex-Dark wizard catcher, and from what we know about him, he always suspects people of…"

"Possible assassinations?" Ichigo offered.

"Yes," he said, nodding. "He told everyone that someone could have put in Potter's name to get Potter killed in the Tournament. No one would suspect him of anything, since he's apparently on Dumbledore's side, and he suggested it himself-"

"And as Yumi said, why would he tell everyone what he did?" Ruri finished, earning herself a glare from Yumichika, which she ignored.

"It's definitely Moody who put in Potter's name?" Renji asked.

"So far, yes," Toshiro replied. "Unless there's someone else who could've done it, that we just don't know of."

"So what do we do now?" Rukia asked.

"See what happens, and don't let Moody think you know anything," he said. "We'll see what happens when it happens."

"Is the meeting over now?" Ikkaku asked.

"Unless anyone has anything to say, yes," Toshiro said, rolling his eyes.

"I have something to say," Renji said. "Does anyone know where the kitchens are?"

"Damn moocher," Ichigo muttered, and dodged Renji's punch.

"I know where it is," Ruri told him, stopping the fight before it started. "You want me to show you?"

"Sure," Renji said, and they walked out of the room. Ikkaku challenged Yumichika to a fight and Toshiro went to a corner, sat down, and started meditating. Rukia was drawing in a sketchbook that appeared out of nowhere, and Ichigo was making fun of her drawings. A few minutes later, in which Ichigo was knocked unconscious by Rukia's sketchbook and the mentioned sketchbook was stolen by a pissed off Toshiro, Ruri and Renji came back into the room. Renji was holding a huge slice of watermelon, and gave it to Toshiro.

"Hey, it was Ruri's idea, so kill her, not me," Renji explained when Toshiro reached for his zanpaktou.

"Yep, Renji's right, for once," Ruri said, walking over to a corner of the room and sitting down. Toshiro glared at her before taking the watermelon slice and biting into it. Before long, he finished the whole thing, and went back to his meditating. Meanwhile, Ikkaku and Yumichika had temporarily paused their fight to stare at what was on the plate in front of Ruri.

"Ruri… is that chocolate pudding? With strawberries?" Yumichika asked uncertainly.

"Yep," she replied cheerfully. "I would offer you some, but I'm eating it, so…"

"Well, at least it's edible," Rukia spoke up, and everyone stared at her. "Compared to Orihime's food, which Orihime makes herself…"

"Oh," everyone said in unison, except for the still-unconscious Ichigo and the meditating Toshiro, who wasn't exactly meditating as he was glaring at them all.

"Well, I'm still gonna eat it," Ruri said, and proceeded to dip a strawberry in the chocolate pudding.

"Of course ya are," Ikkaku said, rolling his eyes and resumed his fight with Yumichika.

* * *

The next few days and weeks went on normally. Rukia started training with Hermione to learn some more spells, since she, along with the other Shinigami, only knew basic spells along with the stuff they learned so far. The other Soul Reapers were keeping an eye on Moody, but nothing ever happened, and the first task was still a while away, so they didn't worry. Ichigo occasionally got complaints from Harry and Ron, who were still avoiding each other, and told them both that they were idiots and that they shouldn't run to him to solve their issues. He and Renji smirked at Harry and Ron's shocked faces.

One day, when Rukia and Ruri were walking to their next class from lunch together, Harry caught up to them.

"Hey, Rukia, the first task is dragons," Harry said.

"What?" Rukia asked.

"Dragons," he repeated. "There's four of them, one for each of us, and we've got to get past them."

"Are you sure?" Ruri said.

"Yeah," Harry replied. "I've seen them."

"How did you find out?" Rukia asked. "We're not supposed to know…"

"It doesn't matter," he said quickly. "I doubt I'm the only one who knows, since both Karkaroff and Maxime both saw the dragons, too, so Fleur and Krum will probably know by now."

"Oh, well, thanks for telling me, Harry," Rukia said, and she and Ruri walked off, but not before noticing Moody walking over to Harry and leading him towards his office. But they couldn't exactly follow them, so Ruri told Rukia that she'd ask Harry about it later. It turned out that Moody was only giving Harry advice, which confused the Shinigami, but since advice never hurt anyone, they didn't do anything about it.

The next day, Rukia, Hermione, and Harry were nowhere to be found, since the two Hogwarts champions were getting Hermione to help them both practice spells. All Harry was trying to do was properly perform a Summoning Charm, which he managed to do. Rukia, however, was learning a more complex spell that would allow her to be as fast as she was in her Shinigami form. After hours of practicing, she finally got it down, and the three of them headed to their own common rooms to get some rest. Tomorrow would be the first task, and both Rukia and Harry wanted to get as much rest as they could before facing the dragons.

* * *

**Me: Well, that took a long time to write, and then re-write. And my GoF book was being stupid and wouldn't stay open, so I had to use my cell phone to make it stay…. **

**Yumichika: I don't think the readers care…**

**Me: Shut your face, Yumi**

**Yumichika: My **_**pretty**_** face**

**Me: *rolls eyes* Fine, then. Shut your pretty face. Doesn't sound as cool, but whatever. Now, the next chapter will have the first task! Also, the Yule Ball's going to come up soon… So, who shall get Rukia? Ichigo or Renji? I already know who's going to ask her, so there's no point really in asking you awesome people, but still. If you want to see any other pairings, let me know! The Potter pairings are going to stay the same, I think…. But the Bleach guys [and Ruri] need someone! SO, review please! Pairings are welcome!**

**Yumichika: … Just review…. **


	6. Of Dragons, FanClubs, and Toasts

**Me: Thanks for the reviews and pairing ideas!**

**Yumichika: The pairings… **

**Me: -laughs evilly- Now… let's see. Here's a little message to Hanashi Tokoma: The other champions and everyone else don't know what year Rukia's in. For all they know, she could be seventeen, but just not look it [which sort of is the case, now that I think about it…]. Harry and the Hogwarts people [except for Moody] who were in that room know that she can participate, even if she's not in 6/7th**** year, but since no one else questions it, they don't bother saying anything about it.**

**Yumichika: So it all works out, and she doesn't have to go back and edit anything.**

**Me: Yep! Hope that cleared the Rukia issue up. Now, onto the story, which has some fluffy goodness! Enjoy and review!**

* * *

**Chapter Six: Of Dragons, FanClubs, and Toasts**

Rukia was slightly nervous as she stood in the tent, waiting for Harry to arrive, and for Bagman to tell them what was going to happen. Harry walked in, and Bagman started talking to them, telling them that they had to reach into the bag he was holding to select a model of the dragon they would be facing, and that their task was to collect the golden egg. A few seconds later, they all had reached into the bag, and picked up a miniature version of their dragon. Fleur picked out a Welsh Green with the number two on it; Rukia got the Swedish Short-Snout dragon with the number one around its neck; Krum pulled out a Chinese Fireball, which was labeled as number three; and Harry got the fourth dragon- the Hungarian Horntail.

"Well, there you are!" Bagman said. "You have each pulled out the dragon you will face, and the numbers refer to the order in which you are to take on the dragons. Now, I'm going to have to leave in the moment, since I'm commentating. Miss Kuchiki, you're first, just go out into the enclosure when you hear a whistle, all right? Now, Harry, could I have a quick word? Outside?" He and Harry walked outside, and Rukia took a few deep calming breaths, waiting for the whistle. When it sounded, Rukia walked outside, and nodded to Harry who wished her luck.

She walked inside the enclosure, and saw the blue-gray Swedish dragon on the other side, guarding the eggs, with the golden one in the middle. She gripped her wand, wishing it were Sode no Shirayuki instead of a piece of wood, and pointed it at herself. Rukia cast the spell to make her faster, and started running towards the Short-Snout. Luckily, she cast the spell right, and she was running faster than normal. She ran to one side of the dragon, hoping to lure it away from the eggs so she could quickly run and snatch the golden one. She could only hope it worked.

Rukia shot sparks out of her wand, and the dragon flew towards her, and away from the eggs. Part one of her plan worked, but now she had to manage to get to the other side of the enclosure without getting burned by the Short-Snout, which was flying low to the ground, and heading towards her. She stood still until the very last second while the crowd held their breath, and then she bolted towards the eggs. She managed to get a few feet away from the eggs, when the Short-Snout's tail swept by her, and she jumped up, causing the crowd to gasp as the tail grazed her legs, and then the crowd started screaming loudly as Rukia grabbed the golden egg. She ran away from the dragon, and ran back to the entrance of the enclosure, smiling brightly. Ikkaku was waiting for her and congratulated her as her scores were given.

* * *

_Meanwhile, in the stands…_

"Who knew Rukia could be that bad-ass?" Ruri asked after she and the other Shinigami stopped screaming their voices hoarse. Her hair was off to the side instead of over one side of her face, so she could have a better look at what was going on. The fact that her hair was different shocked everyone, but once Rukia walked out into the enclosure, they all completely forgot about it.

"I did," Ichigo said, still staring down at Rukia's retreating form.

"Yeah, me too," Renji agreed, also looking at Rukia. Ruri just rolled her eyes and watched as the Swedish Short-Snout dragon was led away, and the Chinese Fireball replaced it.

"It's that Krum guy," Toshiro pointed out as the Durmstrang champion walked out to face the scarlet dragon.

"Hmm... He almost got killed," Yumichika commented after a while of watching Krum try and get past the dragon. Ichigo and Renji were paying attention again, and they were placing bets on how many injuries Krum would get, though they were way off.

"Almost doesn't count," Ruri said, sighing. "Seriously, isn't this guy supposed to be a famous Quidditch player? I didn't know he was so lame."

"Tell that to the fangirls," Toshiro muttered, nodding his head a whole bunch of girls who were screaming their Krum-worshipness for everyone to hear.

"You know... That's not a bad idea," she said slowly. "I wonder what they'll do, besides glare at me." Toshiro and Yumichika glanced at each other before watching Ruri walk towards the group of girls. She said something to them, which pissed them all off, and she returned back to the Soul Reapers a few seconds later, smirking.

"Well?" Yumichika asked.

"They hate my guts," Ruri answered cheerfully. "I told them all that Krum was a loser who's only good at Quidditch and that the dragon would burn his ugly ass to a crisp, and they went all psycho-fangirl on me. They said something about me being jealous of Krum's apparent awesomeness. And I was like, awesomeness? What awesomeness?"

"The awesomeness that he doesn't have," Yumichika said.

"Exactly my point!" she replied, and they high-fived.

"Bet they didn't like that," Toshiro commented.

"Nope, which is why they all hate my guts," Ruri said, still smirking.

"Hey, Ruri, do you think Rukia has a fanclub?" Renji asked as he and Ichigo turned to face them.

"Well, yeah, probably," she answered thoughtfully. "I think she does, actually. A whole bunch of Ravenclaw guys keep trying to hit on her, or so I've seen."

"You're right," Toshiro said. "Rukia always complains about it."

"Do we all have fan-people?" Ichigo asked after a second of thinking about Rukia's possible fanclub. It was obvious he and Renji didn't like that idea.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Toshiro replied, shrugging.

"Considering we're awesomer-" Ruri started.

"And prettier," Yumichika put in, and she nodded.

"And prettier than them, I'd say we all probably do," she finished.

"Sweet," Renji said, smiling.

"Well, even if we don't, you'll have a fanclub made up of the house elves in the kitchens, Renji," Ruri told him.

"Yeah, because you're a big, mooching pineapple," Ichigo added.

"Guys, don't kill each other," Yumichika said before they could start arguing. "At least wait until the first task is over."

"And speaking of which, here comes that Beauxbatons girl, Fleur," Toshiro pointed out.

"She pisses me off," Ruri said. "She thinks she's all pretty and everything, but she's really not. All she has going for her is her hair, really."

"Well, what does Yumichika have to say about her?" Ichigo asked, and everyone turned to stare at the mentioned Shinigami.

"Well-"

"Is she pretty or not? Yes or no?" Ruri pressed before he could say anything more.

"I was _going_ to say that she wasn't any prettier than anyone else here, but-" Yumichika said, glaring at Ruri, and then Ichigo as the strawberry interrupted him.

"She's ugly, but not ugly enough to be called ugly?" Ichigo said, and Yumichika nodded.

"That makes no sense, though," Ruri objected. "Either she's ugly or she's not."

"Guys-" Toshiro started.

"And girl," Ruri interrupted, and he rolled his eyes.

"Potter's coming up to fight his dragon," he continued, and everyone turned back to watch Harry walk into the enclosure.

"This is boring," Ichigo said after a few minutes of watching Harry get chased by the Horntail.

"Yeah, isn't he going to do anything? Wait, never mind," Renji added as Harry got onto his broom and started flying towards the golden egg.

"At least he thought of using a broom, unlike the Quidditch loser Krum," Ruri replied.

"That's probably what Moody was telling him to do- use his broom," Toshiro said, and they all nodded. Finally, the first task finished, and they went down to greet Rukia as she walked out of the tent. Renji and Ichigo kept praising her and telling her that she was awesome, which almost led to a fight about it until she told them both to shut up or they'd get hit in the head with the golden egg she was holding. Needless to say, they shut up.

"When's the next task?" Ichigo asked after a few seconds.

"February 24th," Rukia replied. "And by then we have to figure out what we're doing. Apparently the egg has a clue." She, along with everyone else, looked at the egg dubiously.

"Come on, lets go back to the castle," Toshiro said, noticing that everyone was heading back, and they walked inside. Then the Soul Reapers spent five minutes arguing by the stairs on whether they should all go to Ikkaku's classroom, or go to the Room of Requirement, until they finally decided that the classroom was closer. So, a few minutes later, they were all lounging in the classroom, until Renji mentioned food (and was once again called a 'damn moocher' by Ichigo). This time, though, Renji lead Ichigo and Ikkaku on a raid to the kitchens, leaving everyone else behind, not that they cared. They were all staring at the golden egg, and wondering what was inside of it, but Rukia said that she'd open it when the others got back.

"They better be back soon," Ruri muttered. "I want food."

"By food you mean anything that has chocolate in it," Yumichika said.

"Yeah, so?" she replied. "Chocolate is food. I mean, you eat it, don't you?"

"Well, when you put it that way, you're right," he replied, shrugging.

"You're more concerned about chocolate than what's in the egg?" Toshiro asked from the windowsill, which he retreated to after looking at the mentioned egg.

"Again I say, yeah, so?" Ruri said, but Toshiro just shook his head and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, _'just like Renji.' _She pretended not to hear anything, though that might've been because Ikkaku, Renji, and Ichigo returned with a whole bunch of sweets, watermelon, other fruits, and bottles of Butterbeer, which they have yet to drink (aside from Rukia and Toshiro, since the drink was practically forced down their throats at the party the Ravenclaws held for Rukia). Soon enough they were all sitting in a circle around the food, holding bottles of butterbeer.

"Right, before we have a toast… we all should toast to something different," Ichigo suggested, and they all nodded. "Well, I'll go first. To Rukia and her dragon-ass-kicking awesomeness!"

"You do realize that we're not going to get drunk, right?" Yumichika asked, rolling his eyes. "But anyway… to all of our beauty, though some of us are more beautiful than others..." Everyone could've sworn that his eyes flickered to Ruri (who was pointedly looking everywhere but at him) when he said that, even though Yumichika himself denied it. They all let the matter go… for the time being, that is.

"To the house elves that gave us this butterbeer," Renji said. "And to whoever created butterbeer, too…"

"Only you, Renji," Rukia said, rolling her eyes. "To magic, for being awesome."

"To our epic fighting abilities," said Ikkaku, who was grinning.

"To the house elves that make the food, and are the only fans Renji's ever going to get," Toshiro added, smirking slightly.

"And to our general awesomeness!" Ruri finished, and they all clanged their glasses together before taking a drink. It was all silent for a second until…

"This stuff is actually pretty good," Yumichika commented, staring at the bottle in shock before drinking some more.

"Not as good as sake, but considering it's called _butter_beer, and it's non-alcoholic, you're right," Ikkaku agreed.

"Pity it's not alcoholic, then we could've gotten Yumichika to admit that he _did _look at Ruri," Renji muttered to Ichigo, not realizing that everyone heard him until Ichigo nodded his head in Ruri and Yumichika's direction. The two mentioned were both blushing furiously and looking away from each other, which was sort of hard to do considering they were sitting next to each other. But somehow, they managed to pull it off.

"He doesn't really need to admit it," Ichigo replied thoughtfully. Two seconds later, he was sporting a face covered in the remains of a strawberry that seemed to fly from the opposite direction, which was, oddly enough, where Yumichika was sitting. Yumichika just continued drinking his butterbeer innocently.

"Young love," Ikkaku said teasingly, and his face was introduced to pudding that flew from where Ruri was sitting.

"Is this going to end up as a food fight?" Renji asked. "Because if it is, we need more food."

"It had better not," Toshiro replied from behind the pile of watermelons he ate.

"Well, should I try opening up the golden egg?" Rukia asked, effectively distracting everyone as they all looked from her, to the egg, to her again.

"Hell yeah!" Ichigo said, and she picked up the egg, and opened it. Nothing happened for a second, until a loud, high-pitched squealing started to come out of it, nearly deafening everyone.

"Close the damn thing!" Renji shouted, clutching at his ears like everyone else. Rukia quickly closed the egg and shoved it away from herself.

"Okay, what the hell?" Ruri asked, voicing everyone's thoughts. "Are you going to end up having to go deaf for the next task, or what?"

"Maybe you have to open it differently or something," Ichigo said. "But don't open it again in here, though," he added quickly.

"I don't know. I'll figure it out sooner or later," Rukia replied, shrugging. "I have about three months to figure it out, so…"

"Tell us when you do figure it out," Toshiro told her, and she nodded. "Right, well, let's go back to our common rooms." They all stood up and said bye to each other as they walked out. Yumichika stayed behind, though, to talk to Ikkaku about something. Toshiro just shrugged and walked out, but stayed by the door to try and hear what they were saying. Luckily, he could.

"It's about damn time," Ikkaku was saying.

"But are you sure-"

"Of course I am, Yumichika," he interrupted. "But anyway, between you and me, there's this Yule Ball thing coming up."

"W-what?" Yumichika said, and then added quickly, "What's that got to do with anything?"

Ikkaku laughed. "You know what. But don't tell anyone about the ball, 'kay? No one's supposed to know 'bout it yet."

"Yeah, whatever."

Toshiro heard footsteps, and he hurriedly ran down the corridor and up the stairs, where he hid behind some suit of armor, for once glad that he was short. He watched as Yumichika walked out of the classroom in a somewhat dazed way, still blushing slightly. Toshiro smirked to himself and continued up the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room, which was holding another party for Rukia.

* * *

All of the Shinigami knew about the Yule Ball that was happening on Christmas day, which was about two weeks away. Ichigo and Renji were both trying to flatter Rukia and trying to win her over, but she just continued to ignore them, which pissed them both off. Yumichika and Ruri were sort of avoiding each other, since they were both still thinking of what they called the Butterbeer Incident. The other Soul Reapers kept having to hide their grins whenever the two happened to glance at each other and then end up looking away. It didn't help that they looked at each other quite often.

All of them had been asked by at least two members of their fan club (Renji was happy when he found out that his fans weren't house elves), but they all ended up rejecting the fans. But, they did start actually talking to people, though, since Toshiro brought up the point that either Renji or Ichigo would end up without a partner, and they would look stupid. Toshiro also said that even _he _was starting to talk to the other students, and that remark stopped Renji and Ichigo from saying whatever they had been about to say.

Classes were pretty much just there to pass away the time, and the only classes that they actually had to pay attention in were Potions and History of Magic. Not that anyone ever paid any attention in the latter class, but it was still stupid that the ghost professor was droning on about riots and such when it was obvious that no one cared, less now more than ever.

And then there was Ikkaku's Wandless Combat class. The day after the Butterbeer Incident, Ikkaku had kept bugging Ruri about Yumichika during class, and she ended up attacking his bald head with one of the wooden swords. By the time the class ended, Ikkaku was almost unconscious, and everyone was avoiding Ruri, except the ever-loyal Trio. Of course, Ikkaku did the same thing to Yumichika, who wasn't as violent as Ruri, but did end up knocking his friend completely unconscious. And now, thanks to Ikkaku, Ruri and Yumichika were avoiding each other even more so than before. As anyone else would say, it was pathetic.

Meanwhile, the days remaining to the Yule Ball were slowly dwindling away. By the time that it was less than a week away, Harry and Ron were still didn't have a partner, and that night in the common room they finally got dates to the ball. Ichigo and Renji were both planning on asking Rukia, and they agreed that the best man would get her, and have no hard feelings toward the other that succeeded. Toshiro had told them that he would ask one of the Ravenclaw girls that night, so that left Ruri and Yumichika to get over their issues already, as Ichigo put it. So, that same night, when Ruri was curled up in the corner of one of the sofas, drawing on a sheet of parchment, Yumichika decided that he'd ask her to the ball and get it over with.

"Hey," Yumichika said, sitting down next to her.

"Heya," Ruri replied, looking up from the parchment, and switching to a more comfortable position on the sofa.

"So... I was wondering if you'd, uh, go to the ball with me," he said quietly, slightly turning pink as he looked down at his hands.

"Yeah," she said, smiling at him. "I'd love to."

Yumichika looked up at her. "Really?"

"Well, I wouldn't say I'd love to if I didn't, would I?" Ruri asked him, giggling.

"No, I guess not," he replied, relaxing. She looked thoughtfully at him, and hmm-ed to herself. "What are you thinking about?"

"Does this mean I can call you Yumi now, without getting glared at?" she asked innocently, and he laughed.

"Does it matter? You're going to call me that anyway," Yumichika said, and then looked down in shock as Ruri suddenly hugged him, burying her face into his chest. He wrapped an arm around her and smiled slightly.

* * *

The next morning, Ruri woke up late. Luckily, there weren't any classes, and she figured that a few more minutes of sleep wouldn't harm anyone, so she closed her eyes... only to remember last night. With that thought, she was wide awake, and smiling like crazy as she thought about Yumichika. She abandoned the thought of more sleep and instead tried to quit smiling, and she succeeded after a few seconds of thinking of something completely random. Ruri sighed happily and went to the bathroom to get changed, thankful that no one was in the dorm except for Hermione, who was reading. She walked back into the dorm, and Hermione was staring at her knowingly.

"What?" Ruri asked suspiciously. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Oh, nothing," Hermione replied, smiling mischievously at her.

"M-hmm," she said, rolling her eyes. "Just tell me."

"I heard that Yumichika finally asked you out," Hermione replied, smirking as Ruri blushed. "I told you it'd happen sooner or later."

"No, not asked out, just asked to the ball," Ruri told her quickly. "There's a difference, you know."

This time, Hermione _mhmm_-ed. "_Right_. How do you know there wasn't a hidden meaning?"

"What? No, I ... I don't think there was," Ruri said slowly. "Besides, how do you even know about that?"

"Renji and Ichigo were congratulating him," she replied. "But still, I'm almost positive that there was a double meaning when he asked you to go with him to the ball."

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Ruri asked.

"Not until you admit it," Hermione said.

"Okay, fine. I'll admit it _only_ if you tell me who asked you to the ball," she said.

"Sure, just don't tell anyone," Hermione said, and Ruri nodded. "Viktor Krum."

"The Quidditch loser?" Ruri asked in shock, and then told her about what she said to the fangirls during the first task.

"Yeah, well, he's not that bad," she said, shrugging. "Now, admit it."

Ruri sighed, shaking her head, but smiled as she admitted that Yumichika might've asked her out as well as just asking her to the ball. Hermione grinned.

"Now we can go to breakfast," she said happily, and she led Ruri out the dorm and out of the common room.

"Its about damn time," the Shinigami muttered, but stopped once they reached the Great Hall. "Wait, 'Mione. What if Yumichika's in there?"

"You'll walk over to him, sit down, say hi, and start eating," Hermione replied. "Honestly, it won't be that bad."

"If you say so," Ruri said, and they walked in, heading towards the Gryffindor table. Hermione left to go sit with Harry and Ron, and Ruri sat down next to Yumichika.

"Hey, Yumi," she said, and then looked around. Renji and Ichigo were standing by the Ravenclaw table, talking to Rukia. Toshiro was talking to some girl that he probably asked to the ball. Ruri glanced up at the staff table, and saw that Ikkaku was staring at her and Yumichika. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her food.

"What's up?" Yumichika asked.

"The ceiling that looks like the sky," she replied. "And that owl that's heading our way."

"Owl? Oh," he said as the tawny owl collapsed onto the table in between them. There were two letters attached to it, and once Ruri unattached them, the owl hooted, stole some of Yumichika's bacon, and flew off. They looked at the letters, one of which was from Kenpachi, and the other from Rangiku. Ruri opened up the latter and read it. Somehow, Rangiku found out about her and Yumichika, and was happy for them. She also warned Ruri that everyone in the Seireitei knew about it, but she wouldn't say how. The letter from Kenpachi was addressed to both of them, basically saying that it was about time they got together. There was also a little note from Yachiru demanding candy, which they ignored.

"How do they know?" Ruri asked. "It hasn't even been a day yet."

"I don't know," Yumichika said, but looked at Ichigo and Renji suspiciously as they sat down across from them. "So, which one of you got Rukia?"

"We both did," Ichigo said.

"Rukia said that it was rude of us to make her choose between us, so I came up with a plan that let's us both get her," Renji explained. "We each get half of the ball to spend with her."

"Which one of you is going to be the first one?" Ruri asked.

"The pineapple," Ichigo told her, scowling. "Apparently since he came up with the idea, he gets to dance with Rukia first. But anyway, I see you guys are finally going out."

_So Hermione _was_ right_, Ruri thought as she and Yumichika nodded.

"So, Yumichika," Renji said, a small evil grin forming.

"What?" Yumichika asked.

"I don't think you ever admitted that you _did _look at Ruri yesterday, during the toast," he replied, the evil grin getting larger as the two blushed.

"So are you going to admit it or not?" Ichigo asked. "I mean, you've got nothing to lose."

They all looked at Yumichika expectantly. "Yes, I did," he finally said, making Ruri blush even more. Luckily, Toshiro and Rukia walked over to them at that moment, saving Ruri from whatever embarrassing thing Ichigo or Renji was going to say.

"It's snowing outside," Toshiro told them.

"Snow… that means… snowball fight!" Ichigo said, and stood up. Before long, everyone was outside in the snow, and they split up into two teams: Rukia, Ichigo, and Renji on one; and Toshiro, Ruri, and Yumichika on the other. Hours later, when they were all freezing and tired from running and throwing snow at each other, they all decided to head back in, since the ball, and Christmas, was tomorrow.

* * *

**Me: Next chapter- the Yule Ball! Yay! Oh, and there will be more IchiRuki than RenRuki, just so you know. =]**

**Yumichika: Review?**


	7. the Yule Ball

**Me: Sorry this took so long- a bit of writer's block decided to abduct and steal my brain.**

**Yumichika: Sounds like alien zombies… **

**Me: Hmmm, my psycho-ness is rubbing off on you… Anyhoo, read, enjoy, and review! **

* * *

**Chapter Seven: the Yule Ball: of Interruptions, Hollows, and Fluff**

The Shinigami woke up and were surprised at the gifts that were lying at the foot of their beds. They all got stuff from either each other or the other Soul Reapers back in the Soul Society, so after a few seconds of staring at the presents, they all decided to open them and see what they got.

Ichigo got a long letter from his dad labeled _'How to Seduce the Ladies' _with a lot of notes from Karin and Yuzu, which he threw in the trash after skimming it over. He also got a crappy drawing from Rukia saying Happy Christmas, but he liked it even though it sucked. He also got a strawberry from some anonymous person, which he ate since he was hungry. Toshiro got a note from Karin asking him how he was doing, and a lot of candy from Ukitake, which he ignored and planned to give to Ruri during breakfast. He also got a note from Rangiku, saying that she actually did some of the paperwork, but in return she should be allowed to have more drinking parties, making Toshiro roll his eyes.

Renji received a pineapple from someone in the Seireitei, but he didn't know who sent it, along with a pair of sunglasses, which he put on. Ikkaku was given a wig from Yachiru, which he burned while planning ways to send her hate mail without getting killed by Zaraki. He failed. Yumichika got an expensive and beautiful mirror, which he spent a few seconds staring at himself in before carefully putting it away while wondering who sent it to him.

Rukia got a note and some deformed chocolate thing from Byakuya. She threw out the chocolate since she didn't think it was edible (though she made sure to remember to tell her brother that it tasted fine), and then turned to the Chappy plushie that Ichigo got her. The note attached to it said: _'Yo, Rukia. Now you finally have that Chappy plushie you keep talking about, and it's all thanks to me, the awesome and epic Ichigo.'_ She folded the note carefully and put it away, smiling at Ichigo's sudden thoughtfulness… and his self-praising-ness.

Ruri received a little bit of chocolate from Ukitake with a note from him asking her not to bug him anymore about the candy, which she ignored. She opened up a chocolate bar and bit off a piece as she opened up another present, which was from Yumichika. It was a pretty black hairpin with a red rose at one end, and the note that came with it said, _'Whenever you have your hair off to the side, use this to make it stay. It'll look beautiful on you.' _She smiled and carefully put the note away, before staring at the hairpin and deciding to wear it later at the ball.

Minutes later, they were all in the decorated Great Hall, eating breakfast. They all started laughing as Rukia walked in, carrying a bucket full of candy in front of her, since if Toshiro carried it, he wouldn't be able to see what was in front of him. She and Toshiro walked to the Gryffindor table, and gave the bucket of candy to Ruri.

"Ukitake gave me all of it," Toshiro explained, clearing up her confusion.

"Oh," she said. "You don't want any of it? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," he replied.

"Are you positive? Because if you are, you're never gonna see this stuff again," Ruri warned. "You have one last chance to claim any of the candy."

Toshiro paused, and grabbed two Snickers bars, making everyone start laughing. "You can have the rest."

"Sweet, thanks!" she replied, grinning as she put her new stash of chocolate on the table. Toshiro and Rukia left to the Ravenclaw table, and when they all finished eating, they all went up to their common rooms, aside from Ruri who was wandering the halls with an evil grin (she returned to the Gryffindor common room some time later). Rukia and Ichigo got their jackets, and went outside to enjoy the snow again. They walked over by the lake so they wouldn't get hit by stray snowballs from Harry and the Weasley's snowball fight.

"Let's build a snowman," Rukia suggested. "A Chappy snowman."

"Wouldn't it be a snow-rabbit, then?" Ichigo asked, and she rolled her eyes.

"Snowman, snow-rabbit, same thing. Are you going to help me or not?"

"Well, since I've got nothing better to do-" he started, but was cut off as she threw a snowball in his face. "I'd love to, Rukia."

"Great," Rukia replied happily, and they got to work creating a snow-rabbit. It took a while to finish, since the ears kept falling off, and whenever Ichigo tried to fix it, Rukia would tell him he was doing it wrong. And then a few minutes after Ichigo succeeded in fixing the rabbit's ears, some member of the Weasley snowball fight decided to enlarge a snowball, and managed to throw it at the the two. Of course, this being Ichigo, he moved out of the way, not realizing that Rukia was behind him, and nearly got buried alive in the snow. Ichigo saved her, and they got their revenge by throwing an even bigger snowball at the Weasleys, and then they turned back to the almost-complete Chappy snowman. Eventually they managed to finish it, and they stood back to admire their work.

"It looks awesome," Ichigo commented. And it was true- it did look pretty amazing, and way better than Rukia's pictures that she drew.

"Too bad we don't have a camera," she replied, then stared in shock at Ichigo's retreating back as he yelled that he'd be right back. Rukia perfected the rabbit while she waited for Ichigo to return, which he did a few minutes later… with a camera. "You actually got a camera?"

"Yeah, I bribed some annoying kid for it," Ichigo said, shrugging, then snapped a few shots of their masterpiece.

"Let's take one of us with it," Rukia told him, and they walked over to the snow rabbit. Ichigo slung an arm around Rukia's shoulders and flipped the camera around to take a picture of them, which turned out to actually be a good shot, considering he never took a picture like that before. "Hey, Ichigo, do you think we can get this printed?"

"Probably," he replied. "I'll ask someone how to print it out later, and tell you what they say."

"Okay," she said cheerfully, but frowned as they got hit by a cold gust of wind. "Come on, let's go back inside."

"Yeah," Ichigo agreed. Rukia grabbed his hand, and literally dragged him to the castle while ignoring his threats and attempts to get free, to everyone who was outside's amusement.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Gryffindor common room, Neville was teaching Renji how to play Wizarding Chess. After two games of having the chess pieces tell him how horrible of a player he was, Renji quit and started complaining to Yumichika and Ruri, who were sitting on one of the couches by the fire.

"Hey, Renji," Ruri said after staring at some of the candy she had piled on the couch and then to the fire, and at the candy again. "Go to the kitchens, and go get me some graham crackers and marshmallows."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I wanna make s'mores, and its not like you're doing anything besides complaining," she replied.

"Why don't you ask Yumichika?" Renji said.

"Because he's busy. You're not," she told him.

"Busy doing what?" he asked, staring at Yumichika, who shrugged.

"Um," Ruri said, thinking for a second before coming up with something. "Yumi's busy being pretty! So there! Now go and be a good pineapple and go get me the crackers and marshmallows." Renji rolled his eyes, but walked out of the common room anyway, determined to be a good pineapple instead of a bad one. Then he wondered what had the world come to, if he was actually trying to be a _good _freakin' _pineapple_.

"I'm busy being pretty?" Yumichika asked her, raising a feathered eyebrow.

"Yep. I couldn't think of anything else to say," she replied, shrugging.

"Well, I have to admit, it _is_ a good excuse," he said thoughtfully.

"Told ya so," Ruri said smugly. "Besides, now we don't have to listen to Renji complain about how chess pieces are smarter than him."

Yumichika agreed, and they spent a few minutes talking until Renji came back into the common room, with a bag of marshmallows and graham crackers.

"You better be happy, Ruri," Renji said. "A lot of people were staring at me weirdly."

She wasn't even paying attention to him, since she was already sitting in front of the fire, a stack of chocolate bars on one side, and the food Renji brought in on the other. A few seconds later, Ruri was roasting marshmallows, and was creating a pile of s'mores for her and the other two Soul Reapers. After a few minutes, they were all sitting by the fire, eating the s'mores and roasting marshmallows, to the other Gryffindors' annoyance, since they wanted to warm up by the fire. Yumichika told them rudely to go away and find another fire, and the Gryffindors glared at him before walking away to sulk. Shortly after that, Ruri told Renji to put away the extra marshmallows and graham crackers. Just as he went to walk out of the common room, Hermione walked in, and motioned to Ruri to go over to her.

"What's up?" Ruri asked when she reached Hermione, who was standing by the staircase to the girls dorm.

"It's five- we have to get ready for the ball," she replied. "Oh, and did you talk to… _them_?"

"Yeah, I did. Our plan is set. And, I'll be right there," Ruri said, and Hermione nodded before going up the stairs. She walked back to Yumichika and told him to meet her at the entrance hall at eight.

"Why not in here?" he asked.

"Because," she said, shrugging. "Just meet me there, 'kay? Anyway, see ya later!" Ruri turned to go back to the stairs, but he grabbed her shoulder, and she turned to face him.

"Aren't you going to stay here a bit longer?" Yumichika asked her as he pulled her into a hug.

"No, I have to go get ready. I _do_ have to look pretty, you know," Ruri replied, smiling up at him before turning around and walking to the dorm.

* * *

_Sometime before the ball…_

Renji walked into the entrance hall, looking for Rukia. He saw bright orange hair that belonged to Ichigo, and walked towards him, since Rukia would probably be nearby. He wasn't wrong, since the two were talking to each other. He walked up to them, and then stared at Rukia when he saw her. She was wearing a light blue dress decorated with black ribbons, black gloves, and blue heels. There were also blue ribbons in her hair that matched the color of her dress and heels. To say she looked freakin' awesome would be an understatement, in Renji's opinion.

"Rukia... You look great," Renji said, ignoring the smirking Ichigo.

"Thanks," Rukia replied, smiling slightly.

"So, when's this ball thing starting?" he asked.

"In ten or fifteen minutes," Ichigo answered, his smirk getting bigger. Renji glanced at him suspiciously, but didn't say anything to him.

"So, Rukia," Renji said, speaking what's been on his mind. "Are you sure that your brother won't kill me for dancing with you?"

"No, he won't," Rukia said simply. He stared at her in shock- he expected something like _'yeah, but he won't if I tell him not to'_ or ... Well, something like that. But a simple no?

"What do you mean, _no_?" he asked.

"If Byakuya's going to kill anyone, it's me," Ichigo said. "'Cause I'm gonna be with Rukia the whole time."

"You could've said that in a nicer way, Ichigo," Rukia told him, then turned to Renji. "Sorry, Renji."

"Yeah, whatever," Renji said and walked away to the stairs, feeling numb. He would've wanted to at least spend some time with Rukia, but it wasn't going to happen now. He also wanted to blame it all on Ichigo, but he knew that it was Rukia's choice to choose the strawberry over him. To be honest with himself, Renji didn't care who Rukia went with, as long as she didn't end up hurt, and he knew Ichigo wouldn't do anything to hurt her. Yes, he wanted to be in Ichigo's place, but at least Renji knew that as long as Rukia was happy, he would be, too. Too bad the numbness didn't go away when he realized that.

"Renji?"

"What?" He looked up to see Ruri and Hermione walking down the stairs, both looking great, but not as much as Rukia.

"Why're you walking _up_ the stairs?" Ruri asked.

"Rukia's with Ichigo," Renji said, and the two girls nodded sympathetically.

"So you're not going to the ball, then?" Hermione asked him.

"Well-"

"Thats fine," Ruri interrupted. "But you could do us a favor? It'll only take a few minutes..."

"Sure, what is it?" he asked. A few minutes later, he was walking back down the stairs, a camera hidden in a pocket, and an evil smirk on his face.

* * *

Yumichika was standing a little bit away from the crowd of people, waiting for Ruri. He saw Toshiro and Victoria, the girl he asked, disappear into the crowd, to Toshiro's obvious displeasure. He sighed; it was almost eight, and he still didn't see Ruri anywhere... He glanced at the stairs, and his eyes widened. Ruri and Hermione were walking down the steps, and Hermione walking off somewhere while Ruri was heading towards him. She was wearing a black dress with red underneath it, complimented with black fishnet gloves and black and red heels. Her hair wasn't covering her face or in the usual ponytail. Instead, it was down and curled, except for her bangs, which were pulled to the side and held there with the red rose hairpin he gave her. She walked over to him, smiling.

"Ruri, you look beautiful," Yumichika said, wishing he could've thought of a better word than just beautiful.

"Thanks," Ruri said, blushing slightly. "You look good, too, though you don't even need to try. What with your_ I'm so pretty_-ness and everything."

"You don't, either," he muttered. "Anyway, let's go. They're opening the doors soon."

She nodded, and they walked towards the crowd. A lot of people kept complimenting them, but after a while it was starting to tick them off. They walked over to Ichigo and Rukia, who were also dealing with the same problem.

"I swear, if one more person says that I look good, they're gonna end up like Nearly Headless Nick," Ruri said darkly as some girl walked away after complimenting her.

"Yo, Ruri-" Ichigo started, smirking.

"Shut it, Ichigo," she said, glaring at him, but it was her turn to smirk as someone complimented him and Rukia, and left as Ichigo glared at them.

"Hey, Ruri, where'd you get that hairpin?" Rukia asked, smiling knowingly at her.

"Oh, some amazing guy gave it to me," Ruri said, shrugging, and they all laughed as Yumichika turned red. "So anyway, is it eight yet?"

"Line stealer," Ichigo muttered, earning himself a glare from Ruri.

"Almost," Yumichika answered, and they all groaned. After a few seconds, Ruri repeated her question. "No, it's not."

"Now is it?"

"It's been five seconds," he replied, rolling his eyes.

"Five seconds can be a long time," Rukia told him.

"A very, _very_ long time," Ichigo added.

"Why are you all impatient all of a sudden?" Yumichika asked.

"Food," Ruri replied simply. "And candy…."

"Music," said Rukia.

"Ruri stole my line_. Again_," Ichigo muttered, glaring at Ruri, who stuck her tongue out at him. Yumichika just sighed and shook his head, but then perked up at the doors to the Great Hall finally opened. Rukia and Ichigo left since Rukia was one of the Champions, and they had to be one of the first ones to dance.

"If Ichigo has Rukia, what happened to Renji?" Yumichika asked after the champions started dancing, and everyone was just walking around, dancing, or getting drinks. They were walking around aimlessly, since neither of them knew how to dance, and they weren't going to try since they might end up failing. And if they failed, they'd look ugly, or so Yumichika said. And someone who was pretty couldn't look ugly. Ruri couldn't argue with that logic, so they opted to walking around.

"I think he went to either sulk in the kitchens, or in the Room of Requirement," Ruri said, hiding an evil grin by looking around. "But since he _is_ a moocher, I'd say the kitchens, with his house elf fanclub. Too bad he didn't think of a backup partner or something like that."

"Well, that's _his_ problem," he replied, and she nodded.

"Couldn't've said it better myself, Yumi," she agreed.

* * *

Rukia and Ichigo had left the Great Hall after a few songs performed by the Weird Sisters, and were walking outside, heading to one of the benches.

"So, did you have a good time so far?" Ichigo asked as they sat down.

"Yeah, it was interesting," Rukia said, leaning her head on his shoulder. "But tiring."

"Well, considering you forced me to dance to almost every song…" he replied, smirking as she half-heartedly tried to hit him.

"You didn't mind," she told him, and Ichigo nodded, draping an arm around her.

"Even if I did, you still would've used your midget powers to make me keep dancing," he said.

"Midget powers?" Rukia asked. "I have midget powers?"

"Yep," Ichigo replied. "It's what makes me keep on liking you, even though you can be so damn annoying sometimes."

"What would happen if I lost my Midget Powers?"

"The only way you can lose your Midget Powers is if you suddenly add ten inches to your height," he told her.

"So I'll always have the powers, then," Rukia said happily. "Unless..."

"Steroids," they both said at the same time, and laughed.

"So yeah, you'll always be my little midget," Ichigo said, and she kissed his cheek- the only place she could reach. "Oh, no," he said gravely.

"What?" she asked, staring up at him in confusion.

"The Midget Powers are making you blind," he said slowly, then shoved two fingers in her face. "Quick, Rukia, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Two, but I can see just fine," she replied, still slightly confused.

"But you missed," Ichigo said, and touched his cheek where she kissed him. "My mouth isn't here."

Rukia laughed. "It was the only part of your face I could reach, Ichigo."

"So your Midget Powers aren't making you blind? Good," he said in relief. He turned towards her, and they kissed.

"Five points from Ravenclaw, Kuchiki! And five from Gryffindor, Kurosaki!" came Snape's voice a few seconds later, interrupting their kiss, and they pulled away, glaring at Snape's back as he continued docking points from other couples.

"Let's go somewhere else," Rukia said, standing up.

"Like where?" Ichigo asked.

"You'll find out." She grabbed his hand and led him back into the castle, and up some stairs to the Room of Requirement. But they stopped short as they heard a familiar roar of a hollow coming from outside.

"C'mon," Ichigo said, and after Rukia took off her heels, they started running up the stairs as fast as they could. They ran up to the wall on the seventh floor, and wrenched the Room of Requirement's doors open as soon as it formed. Then they left their gigais, and flash-stepped to the roof of the castle.

"There it is," Rukia said, pointing towards the Forbidden Forest. The hollow was huge, and looked like some sort of beetle-cat-snake hybrid thing with a hole in its chest, and had glowing orange eyes that were seen through thin slits of its mask. They shunpo-ed to the edge of the roof that was by the forest, and looked down.

Ikkaku was preventing people from going near the forest and the hollow, and Ruri and Yumichika were yelling at whoever tried to get past Ikkaku. Toshiro was arguing with Victoria, and it seemed as if he wanted to join the other Shinigami, but she didn't want him to go any nearer to the hollow. He caught their eye and nodded, and Ichigo jumped off the roof and landed in the air by the hollow. Rukia followed him, and they started slicing up the hollow, which kept flicking its tail angrily at them, until Ichigo chopped it off.

While they attacked the hollow, Renji had told Dumbledore that everyone could see Ichigo and Rukia as Shinigami, along with the hollow. So, Dumbledore got McGonagall and Snape, and they followed Renji outside and to the Forbidden Forest, where Ruri met up them.

"It's about time," she said to Renji. "Everyone seems to want a closer look at the hollow, which still isn't dying."

"What do you mean, it isn't dying? Didn't Ichigo use Getsuga Tenshou?" Renji asked her, and she nodded.

"Yep, a few times, but the damn thing won't die. The mask doesn't even crack, but if he Getsuga Tenshou's other parts of the hollow, like its limbs, it'll get cut off," she explained, then looked back at the forest in shock as the air suddenly got cold. There were hooded figures emerging from the forest, and they seemed to be the cause of the sudden coldness. The Shinigami, except for Ichigo and Rukia, joined them and asked Dumbledore what the figures were.

"Dementors," Dumbledore told them gravely, then explained what they were.

"So they're like magical hollows without the holes and masks," Ruri muttered.

"At least they're not as ugly as hollows are," Yumichika said, earning a few grins.

"How do you kill them?" Toshiro asked.

"I've never heard of anyone killing a dementor, so I'm not sure," Dumbledore said.

"Well, I'll kill it," Ikkaku said, grinning. "If Ichigo doesn't kill it before I get there..."

"Them," Ruri told him. "There's more then one of them. Oh, and that reminds me. Dumbledore, how're you going to tell everyone that Ichigo and Rukia are Shinigami without having everyone start spazzing out and running for their life?"

"Shinigami?" asked a voice, and everyone turned to see Karkaroff joining the group, and an angry looking Maxime behind him. "You've been keeping Shinigami at the school, Dumbledore?"

About 10 minutes later, Ichigo and Rukia joined them after killing a few of the dementors (the other dementors left before they, too, got killed by Getsuga Tenshou. Ichigo went bankai on the hollow, and succeeded in killing it) and 30 minutes later, everything was finally explained to the foreign wizard and witch. Now the problem was how to tell the students that there were Shinigami living at Hogwarts, and that they weren't in any danger. In the end, they decided to just say that Ichigo and Rukia were Shinigami, and if the majority of the students reacted badly, they'd leave it at that. If not, then they'd tell them that the other transfers were also Soul Reapers. Before that could happen, Toshiro said that he had to tell Yamamoto about the weird hollow, dementors, and their current predicament. So, he was now standing by the lake, talking into his cell phone. The Shinigami stood in a separate group as the professors started telling the students that they had nothing to worry about, and that they were all safe thanks to Ichigo and Rukia.

Rukia and Ichigo had gone back to the Room of Requirement to go back into their gigais, and were now looking normal, and not like they did as Shinigami. Toshiro returned to the group a few minutes later, and told them that someone from the 12th squad would be coming soon with the screen that let them see the first squad barracks, and would also be doing something to find out about the hollow. Apparently Yamamoto was planning on telling everyone that they all were Shinigami, so long as the wizards would follow in Dumbledore's lead and trust them. But since it was also late in the Soul Society, they would tell the wizards about their real identities tomorrow.

The news was repeated to Dumbledore and the other professors that were there. Meanwhile, the wizards from the Ministry that were at Hogwarts because of the Tournament were standing in their own little circle, confused as to what was going on, but not wanting to say anything and end up making fools out of themselves.

A Senkaimon appeared, causing everyone except the Soul Reapers to gasp and mutter to each other as the doors slid open to reveal Rin. He was carrying a little box (that would later become the screen) in one hand, and two huge sacks in the other. One of them contained sweets, and the other had stuff he brought from the 12th squad.

"Hm, I think he owes me some candy," Ruri muttered as he walked over to the group. "Yo, Rin."

"Oh, hey Ruri," Rin said. "And everyone else." The other Shinigami nodded at him, and went back to their conversations.

"You have my candy?"

"Yeah, but I also have cake, which is better," he told her, and gave her the sack of candy. "Take what you want."

"Really?" she asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Not a smart choice," Yumichika muttered.

"Well, take some of it. Or a little bit of it… Just make sure that I have some, okay?" Rin said, and Ruri nodded. She started going through the sack of candy, tossing Toshiro a Snickers bar, giving Ichigo a random strawberry shortcake, and taking out a 3 Musketeers for herself. Meanwhile, Renji was pointing out where the hollow had appeared, and what Dumbledore told them about the dementors.

Dumbledore had told everyone else that they would be informed of what was going on tomorrow after breakfast, and that they should all go back to their dorms to get some rest. The students grumbled, but slowly went back into the castle, along with some of the foreign wizards who didn't feel like going back to their place. Within twenty minutes, the only people who were outside were the Shinigami, and Dumbledore, who was talking to the Ministry officials, who were demanding some sort of explanation, which they didn't get. By that time, Rin had finished getting data from whatever was left of the hollow, and had returned to the group.

"I sent the information to Captain Kurotsuchi, so by tomorrow I should know why the hollow wouldn't die right away," Rin told them, and they all started walking towards the castle.

"What about the dementors?" Toshiro asked. "Did you find out anything about them?"

"Only that it takes a lot for them to be killed," he replied.

"So my Getsuga Tenshou was 'a lot,' then?" Ichigo said.

"Apparently so. I also sent out some data about the dementors to the 12th squad, so," Rin said, shrugging, then started asking questions about magic and whatever magical thing they came across when walking up the stairs in the castle. Rukia answered most of his questions, until she and Toshiro had to go in another direction to head towards the Ravenclaw common room. Rin decided to stick with the Gryffindors, so the rest of the group continued to walk up the stairs. They went into the common room, and looked on as Ron and Hermione glared at each other before walking away to their dorms. Ichigo and Renji went up to the dorms, too, leaving Ruri, Yumichika, and Rin in the empty common room. They went to the chairs by the sofa, the two squad eleven members claiming the sofa while Rin went to the chair opposite them. The table in the middle was full of candy that Ruri took from Rin, along with his two sacks of stuff.

"So, Rin. How many people know about me and Yumi?" Ruri asked.

"Everyone, I think," he replied.

"Damn, now I owe Hermione ten Galleons," she muttered.

"How many know about Ichigo and Rukia?" Yumichika asked.

"Only a few, not including Captain Kuchiki," Rin said. "Oh, that reminds me! Ruri, Captain Zaraki gave me a whole stack of papers he needs you to fill out."

"What?" Ruri said as he reached into one of his bags, and pulled out stack after stack of paperwork, and put them on the table in front of her. "But... I already have homework! I can't do all this on top of the crapload of stuff the stupid professors give us!"

"Crapload? What an ugly word," Yumichika commented.

"Then why'd you say it, if it's so ugly?" she countered, and he shrugged. "Anyway, Rin, did Captain say when I have to finish this by?"

"Yeah, I think he said you have a few months," Rin told her, she nodded thoughtfully.

"Well at least I have time, for once. Usually he gives me the paperwork and says it needs to be done in two days, or something like that," she said. "But why does he always make _me_ do the work? Why not someone else?"

"Maybe it's because everyone else is always busy," Rin suggested, shrugging.

"Maybe it's because you don't do anything except bug Captain Ukitake until he gives you chocolate," Yumichika said.

"I'm not the only one who doesn't do anything," Ruri said defensively. "I mean, look at Ikkaku. If he's not fighting or eating, he's sleeping. Even _I'm_ not that lazy."

"But it _is_ Ikkaku," he replied.

"Or maybe it's revenge," Rin offered quickly.

"Revenge for what?" she asked, and they all spent a few minutes thinking.

"Revenge for replacing his hair-bells with glue that ended up making his fingers stick together?" Yumichika said at last.

"No, that was just an April Fools joke," she replied. "Besides, that was years ago."

"But didn't you start getting the paperwork years ago?" Rin asked.

"How would _you_ know?" Ruri asked him, and she grabbed a 3 Musketeers. She split it in half, giving one piece to Yumichika and ripping off pieces of her half which she ate.

"When you first got work, you stormed into the 12th squad room, stole the cake I was eating and made me chase you all around Seireitei for a while, before tripping and accidentally throwing the cake into Hanatarou's face," he replied. "And then told me later that you were depressed since you had to fill out paperwork instead of joining Yumichika and Ikkaku on some mission they went on."

"So _that's_ where I was," Yumichika muttered.

"Lucky Hanatarou. He got the cake. But did that all really happen?"

Rin nodded. "I think you also devised a plan with Kira, and you guys pretended to be emo and went to Captain Ukitake's office."

"Yeah, that I remember," she replied, nodding. "It was a ploy to get some candy. I'm still surprised Kira even agreed to it."

"And then the next day, you stole another of my cakes, but it didn't end up in Hanatarou's face," he continued.

"That was a really good cake," Ruri said. "And then the rest of that day was spent bribing people to do the work for me."

"And let me guess, they all said no?" Yumichika asked, and she nodded.

"So in the end, Captain ended up trapping me in his office, with a note saying that I could only get out if I finished all the paperwork by that night," she finished. "Which I did, too."

"From then on, Ruri always did her paperwork first, and cause chaos afterwards," Rin added, and then stifled a yawn. "Hey, Yumichika, where's the guys dorm?"

"Those stairs, fourth door to your right. It should say our names on it," he told him, pointing, and Rin nodded before taking his two sacks and disappearing up the stairs.

"He just _had_ to take the candy," Ruri muttered, glaring at the candy-less table, and the giant stack of papers on it. "He should've taken the papers instead."

"What's wrong with doing paperwork?" Yumichika asked.

"It's boring, and... I don't know, it's just boring," she replied, shrugging.

"Do you want me to do some of it?" he offered, and her face lit up.

"Yes! You're awesome, Yumi! But… will you be even awesom_er _and do most of it for me?" Ruri said hopefully.

"Maybe," Yumichika replied. "It depends on how much. I also have work to do, too you know. And those OWL things at the end of the year, too…"

"Wait a sec…" She stood up, and somehow managed to put all of the papers on top of each other, so it literally formed one giant stack of papers, that was way taller than her. "Yumi- stand up." He did, and she looked from him to the stack of papers and back again a few times in shock.

"What?" he asked.

"The… the stack of papers is _taller _than you!" Ruri said in shock, her eyes still wide. He looked up at the papers, and sure enough, it was several inches taller than him. "Okay, so how about you do the papers that reach your shoulder and up?"

"That's it? I would've thought that you'd want me to do more," Yumichika replied, but then shrugged as he separated those papers from the stack.

"Well, how much more are you willing to do?"

"Preferably, nothing, but-"

"But?" she asked, crossing her arms. "What do you mean by that?"

"I was going to say that you'd probably-"

"Probably _what?"_

"Quit interrupting me, and you'd find out!"

"Jerk face," she muttered.

"What was that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Huh, me? I didn't say anything."

_"Right."_

"Left."

"… Where'd _that_ come from?"

"Does it matter? Just tell me if you're gonna do any more of the paperwork or not."

"I'll do some more -_SOME_ more, not all of it- but only if I get something in return," Yumichika told her.

"Oh no, here comes the FMA quotes… _'Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return' _or something like that," Ruri muttered. "Okay, I'm not giving you any candy, and the only magical money I have I owe Hermione, so-" She was cut off as he pressed his lips to hers, and she stared dumbly up at him before she closed her eyes and returned the kiss. All too soon he pulled back.

"You were saying?" he asked innocently.

"Um..."

"It's been how many years, and I _still_ have to tell you not to say um?" Yumichika asked.

"Well, it's not my fault I said um! I was in the middle of talking, you know, and then you just randomly kiss me, and then ask me, oh so innocently, what I was saying, when I don't even remember myself, and you actually-" Ruri was cut off again as he kissed her.

"You were rambling," he explained when they pulled away, and she glared at him.

"I was NOT!"

"Yes, you were. You didn't even stop to breathe, or end a sentence and start a new one."

"I did, too!"

"Once."

"Jerk face!" Ruri pointed a finger at him when calling him that, and then spun around to leave. But Yumichika was faster, and he grabbed her hand, pulling her towards him so she was leaning against him, with his arms around her so she couldn't escape.

"Damn you," she muttered under her breath, then froze. "Wait... You said you'd do more of the paperwork for a price... What was the price?"

"You," he said simply and she ducked under his arms so she could stare at him.

"_JERK_ face!"

"Come on, you have to admit the price was a good one," Yumichika said, smirking at her. "But, you still have to fill out a bit more than half of the papers yourself, unless…"

"Then I will," Ruri replied, shocking him, and it was her turn to smirk.

"What do you mean?" he asked dumbly.

"You think I'm stupid! But I'm not, and I know what you're trying to do! And it's not gonna work."

"What am I trying to do, then?"

"Are you serious?"

"Do I look serious?"

"No."

"... What?"

"I said no, you don't look serious. You look like a fish that just saw another fish start eating itself. 'Cause your eyes are all wide, and you're just standing there," she explained, then started laughing as she realized what she said.

"O-_kay_ then," Yumichika said, wondering where Ruri's sanity went, or if she even had any to begin with. "But are you absolutely _sure_ you don't want any less paperwork to do?"

"I can manage. But you, on the other hand, are going to suffer!"

"Suffer from what, exactly?"

"Suffer from the lack of... me," she said dramatically, and then started walking towards the stairs to the girls dorm. "You can put all those papers away, though!" she added cheerfully as she disappeared from Yumichika's sight. He decided to leave the papers where they were, with a note saying that anyone who touched them would regret it, and then headed up towards his dorm. He wondered, not for the first time, if all the candy Ruri ate was doing something to her mind.

* * *

**Me: Don't own Full Metal Alchemist! Right, so, next chapter. Everyone finds out that the Shinigami are, well, Shinigami. But what they don't expect is the sudden shout that comes from a certain DADA professor...**

**Yumichika: So ominous!**

**Me: You bet it is! So anyway, I was really disappointed when i only got ONE review for the previous chapter, so how about you all review this one and give me some ideas for what should happen next chapter, okay? Also, I give a giant cupcake to BeccaBaby, who's the only one who reviewed the last chapter. **

**Yumichika: Feel special. It's one of the few giant cupcakes we have. **

**Me: So anyway. REVIEW! Please? Pretty please? Pretty pretty _pretty_ please?**

**Yumichika: How can a please be pretty?**

**Me: How can a fish eat itself?**

**Yumi: ...**

**Me: Exactly. So, epic person who is reading this, please review! Reviews make my day!**


	8. The Three Teams

****

Me (eating head-sized cookie from 'yeah9fun'): Sorry for the wait! Right when Yamamoto starts talking I get Writer's Block…. Just shows how annoying he is ;D And then I got an idea for another Bleach fanfic…. Anyway, most of this chapter is a filler. Its stupid, pointless, random, and just shows how insane Ruri can be when someone threatens to steal her food.

**Yumichika: That insanity leads to everyone being insane…**

**Me: And results in chaos! So anyway, thank you for the reviews! I have 30 now! Yay! Also, many thanks to ultima-owner for reviewing every chapter; BeccaBaby for guessing part of the use of the camera; and yeah9fun for the giant cookie as big as my head (and yes, I'm a girl ;D ). And, thanks to everyone else who reviewed, favorited, and alerted this story! You guys are awesome!Yumi: And now you can finally read, enjoy, and hopefully review this filler chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Eight: The Three Teams**

Rin had set up the weird TV screen thing in the Great Hall, and was now waiting for Dumbledore to tell him to connect it. He and the other Shinigami had left their gigais in the Room of Requirement, and were all standing in little groups beside the screen. The students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were also there, and the only people who weren't were the Ministry officials. Meanwhile, the Head of Gryffindor House was wondering if telling all of the students, foreign ones included, about the Soul Reaper's true identity was such a good idea, and voiced her question to Dumbledore.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure they'll all realize after this Head Captain of theirs explains everything that Aizen's article a while ago was wrong," Dumbledore reassured her, though McGonagall still had her doubts.

"Are they even going to be informed about who Aizen really is?" Snape asked.

"That's up to the Head Captain," he replied, then looked at the time. He stood up, and the Great Hall slowly fell silent. "Shortly, this screen will show us people from a place almost all of you have never heard of. When they are introducing themselves, I ask that you keep your comments to yourself, and wait until after everything is explained to ask your questions. I also ask of you that what you find out today is not repeated to anyone outside of Hogwarts, for confidential matters. Though you might want to write home to see if you can find out any information, it is best for you to ask them yourselves and get the correct answers instead of either biased or incorrect ones from your family members. With that being said, Rin, if you will?"

Rin nodded and walked closer to the screen. He muttered something, and it flickered to life, showing the first squad barracks, with the captains, including the Head Captain, staring out at them. Rin bowed and hurried off to the side where the other Soul Reapers were.

"We are Shinigami, or Soul Reapers," Yamamoto said, and everyone gasped, but didn't say anything. "I am the head captain of the Gotei 13 and captain of the first squad, Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto."

"Captain of Squad 2 and the commander of the Stealth Force. Soi Fon."

"I'm Retsu Unohana, the captain of the 4th squad," she said, smiling kindly at them.

"Captain of the Squad 6. Byakuya Kuchiki."

"I am the captain of the seventh squad, Sajin Komamura." Of course, he drew stares.

"I'm the captain of the 8th division, Shunsui Kyoraku." He smiled lazily under his hat.

"Captain of Squad 11, Kenpachi Zaraki." He grinned at them, and they gulped.

"I am the captain of the 12th squad and the head of the Department of Research and Development. Mayuri Kurotsuchi." He stared at them all evilly, and everyone gulped again.

"I'm the captain of the 13th division, Jushiro Ukitake."

Toshiro stepped up. "Captain of Squad 10. Toshiro Hitsugaya." All of the students stared in shock as they wondered how he could be a captain since he looked so young, and then they did a double take when they realized that they'd been going to school with a captain.

"Lieutenant of the sixth squad, Renji Abarai." Again, everyone was shocked as they found out that they'd been going to school with both a captain _and_ a lieutenant.

"3rd seat of squad 11, Ikkaku Madarame."

"5th seat of the 11th squad. Yumichika Ayasegawa."

"Ruri Aruteru, 6th seat of squad 11." Everyone looked at her, to Kenpachi, and back again, and wondered how Ruri was in that squad.

"Rukia Kuchiki, of the 13th squad."

"Ichigo Kurosaki. I'm a substitute Soul Reaper, so I'm squad-less." Most people looked confused at the term 'substitute Soul Reaper,' but they just shrugged it off."Rin Tsubokura of Squad 12."

"Now, I am aware of the article that Aizen had published," Yamamoto began, and all of the Shinigami were either glaring, clenching their fists, or doing something else to express their anger when he mentioned Aizen's name. "Here is basic information you need to know about Shinigami, and from then on you can decide whether or not to believe the article. First, there are two different types of souls: Hollows and Pluses." He went on to explain what Hollows were, and how Soul Reapers killed them, but really just purified their souls with their zanpaktou so they could go on to the Soul Society. He also explained a little about the Soul Society and the Gotei 13. When he finished explaining things, he asked if anyone had questions.

"So, wait, you're dead?" a Ravenclaw (Victoria, to be specific) asked. Yamamoto nodded, and she looked thoughtfully at Toshiro. There weren't any more questions, so he turned to Dumbledore.

"The Shinigami at your school will remain there until they're done with their schooling, since learning magic might become useful to us later on," he said. "They'll also be, in general, keeping the school from harm. Also, Rin Tsubokura will be staying there until Captain Kurotsuchi finishes analyzing the hollow that was killed yesterday, and then he'll be returning here through another Senkaimon. There will be more information on that later on. I have one request, though."

Dumbledore nodded. "What is it?"

"Everyone who is here must not tell anyone about Shinigami or anything that was spoken about," Yamamoto replied. "We must be kept a secret, the way magic is kept a secret from normal, non-magical humans."

"I've already spoken to everyone about that," he said. "The students, I'm sure, understand and won't speak of Shinigami to anyone outside of Hogwarts."

"Good. If they have any more questions later on, they can ask the Shinigami stationed there," Yamamoto said, and after a general nod of everyone, the screen flickered and faded to black. Almost immediately, the Great Hall erupted into whispers, which became louder as the eight Shinigami used shunpo to get back to the Room of Requirement.

* * *

"Well, that went pretty well," Rin commented, getting a few nods of agreement. They didn't feel like returning to the Great Hall, so they were in Ikkaku's classroom. Ichigo, Toshiro, and Renji were raiding the kitchens for some food, leaving the rest to do whatever they wanted. Ruri was curled up in a corner, asleep, with a half-eaten candy bar in her hand; Rukia was trying to draw with a quill and ink but was failing; Rin was eating cake, as usual; and Ikkaku was attempting, and failing, to make Yumichika fight him.

A few minutes later, Ichigo walked in, carrying tons of food. After a few more seconds, Toshiro walked in, holding the drinks, and Renji followed with more food. They somehow managed to pile the food in the middle of the room without breaking or dropping anything, and everyone (except for Ruri, who was still somehow asleep) gathered around the food. After about five minutes of eating, there was a knock on the door, and Toshiro opened it to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They walked in, and Toshiro returned to his place around the food.

"We brought you some food, but…" Hermione said, and then actually looked around the room. She, Harry, and Ron looked at them all oddly, which wasn't surprising, considering everyone except for Rukia was stuffing their faces.

"We'll take it," Renji told her, and was promptly called a moocher by Ichigo. The trio put down their food, and also sat down.

"So, what's going on in the Great Hall?" Rukia asked.

"Some people think you guys are out to kill us all; some, mainly the Hufflepuffs, being the losers they are, are terrified out of their minds. Others think you guys are normal, some _other_ people think you guys are wizards and aren't dead, and the Slytherins are probably plotting ways to get you to join You-Know-Who," Ron said in between bites of a bagel.

"You-Know-Who?" Rin asked, since no one remembered to fill him in on the wizarding world's issues.

"Their version of Aizen," Ichigo replied, and Rin nodded before grabbing a donut.

"And what about the foreign students?" Toshiro asked. "What are their thoughts?"

"They don't know what to believe," Harry answered. "Though they seem to think you're the good guys, so…." He shrugged.

"I… smell… food!" Ruri, who was finally awake, said from the corner, her candy bar flying across the room and landing in the garbage can. She took her hair out from its usual ponytail and was running her hands through it before putting it back up again. She was glancing at the food, and suddenly froze. "Is there... No, it can't be!"

"What?" Ikkaku asked nervously, and everyone stared at her warily. Her eyes were wide, and she was now staring at the pile of food as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"It's…."

"Yeah? It's what?" Ron said impatiently, and then gulped as she glared at him for exactly 30 seconds before looking back at the food.

"It's…."

"It's…?" Yumichika prompted, getting a two-second glare from Ruri and an even longer one from Ron.

"It's…. a….."

"We're making progress, no one say anything," Renji whispered, and was, of course, glared at by Ruri.

"You should take your own advice," Toshiro muttered, and smirked triumphantly when he didn't get glared at… until Ron and Renji joined forces and glared at him.

"It's a…. marble… frosted… DONUT!" Ruri shouted at last, and ran towards the pile of food, crashing into Yumichika and Rin, who happened to be sitting by the innocent plate of donuts. She grabbed the marble frosted donut and sighed happily as she sat down.

"Should've figured," Ikkaku muttered, and glared her as she threw a fistful of cereal at him.

"Ruri… I was _eating_ that," Yumichika said sadly. It was true, he had a whole box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios to himself, until Ruri decided that the Cheerios would be something good to throw at people.

"Well, what did you want me to throw? My … _precious?" _she said, staring at donut in worship, and stroking it.

"I _told _you that letting her watch Lord of the Rings wasn't a good idea," Ikkaku muttered, but Yumichika just shrugged and went back to his cereal, though he glared at the donut, which Ruri was still worshipping.

"I'm surprised that you went for the Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and not the Fruit Loops, Yumichika," Ichigo said quickly, before more cereal was thrown.

"Fruit Loops are gay Cheerios," Rukia told him matter-of-factly, and everyone nodded their agreement.

"How could you not know that, Ichigo?" Harry asked. "Even _Ron_ knows that!"

"Hey!" Ron said, but he was laughing with everyone else.

"But it _is_ true," Toshiro agreed, looking up from the watermelon he was eating.

"Where'd you get that watermelon?" Renji asked slowly, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"I had it the whole time," he replied, staring at them all oddly. "You just probably never noticed it."

"_I _did. It's sort of a big mutated watermelon," Hermione piped up. "Kind of hard to miss, you know."

"But it's edible, right?" Toshiro asked quickly, and she nodded. "Good-"

"NO! My donut!" Ruri suddenly shouted, and everyone stared at her. Rin, apparently, was trying to get a Kit-Kat bar, which was on the other side of the plate of donuts. Ruri, thinking that he was trying to steal her donut, had freaked and spazzed out, and was now sitting awkwardly on Yumichika's lap, while Yumichika blushed. The half-eaten donut was being held protectively in one of her hands, while her other hand was behind her on the floor, so she wouldn't fall backwards.

"Um… I wasn't stealing your donut, Ruri," Rin said nervously.

"Mm-hmm," she said disbelievingly.

"Really! It's a serious crime to steal someone's donut!" he added, and then held up the candy he somehow ended up getting. "I was just getting the Kit-Kats…"

"_Right- _Who the hell was that?" she suddenly asked as a bright light and a click of a camera went off. The evil laughter and smirk of Ichigo was enough answer for her, and she spazzed out again. "Yumi- watch and protect my donut with your life," she told him, handing over the sacred donut. "If you do _anything_, and I mean _anything_, to my donut…."

"I won't," Yumichika said, rolling his eyes, and she nodded before scrambling off of him and standing up.

"Ichigo Kurosaki…. You are DEAD!" she yelled, and he quickly stood up, holding the camera protectively.

"What did-" Ichigo never finished, because then Rukia pushed him towards the door, and he took that as his cue to start running. He opened the door, and disappeared down the hall, with Ruri hot on his heels. It was silent for a few seconds before they heard yells, screams, and loud crashes, followed by more screams. They faintly heard Ruri yelling out 'Give me the damn camera, Kurosaki!' and then another loud crash, followed by cursing.

"So-" Rukia started after a few seconds, but was interrupted as the door flew open, and Ichigo rushed in, closing the door in Ruri's face, literally, since her yell of pain sounded shortly after.

"Who had this camera last?" Ichigo demanded, glaring at all of them.

("Kurosaki! Open the door! I have to kill you!" Ruri shouted, and was ignored.)

"Renji," Hermione answered, and Renji glared at her.

"You weren't supposed to say anything," he muttered.

"Renji," Ichigo said darkly, and the Shinigami in question gulped. "Explain."

("Yumichika! Why the hell aren't you saving me?" Ruri yelled. Ichigo opened the door slightly and kicked wildly, and closed the door. "That wasn't very nice….")

"Um, see, Ichigo," Renji replied nervously. "Hermione and Ruri told me to-"

"Ruri, you're the dead one, now!" Ichigo yelled to the door, which was strangely silent.

"Is anyone going to explain what's going on?" Ron asked, and everyone else nodded in agreement.

"_Renji…." _

"Hermione and Ruri told me to!" Renji shouted quickly. "They said something about blackmail! And the pictures! And…."

"_And?" _Ichigo asked.

"They said something about showing the picture to Captain Kuchiki in case they needed to blackmail you or Rukia," he admitted. "But Ruri also made me take pictures of Hermione and Krum so they could somehow blackmail Ron!"

"What?" Ron and Hermione shouted in unison.

"You, Renji, are a BAD, bad pineapple!" Ichigo shouted.

"How do _you _know about that?" Renji asked.

"Word spreads quickly around here," Toshiro told him in a 'no duh' voice.

"Delete those pictures!" Ron shouted. "Quick, Ichigo, delete them!"

"That's a good idea, except I _can't _delete them!" Ichigo replied, glaring at Renji.

"I think running would be a good idea, now," Rin whispered.

"No, Ichigo's still blocking the door," Renji replied.

"Speaking of which, what happened to Ruri?" Yumichika asked.

("Oh, NOW you wonder about me! Shows what kinda guy _you_ are," Ruri said, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief since she wasn't dead. Well, nearly everyone….)

"Renji, Ruri…. You all are dead!" Ichigo muttered darkly.

"Ichigo, quit overreacting," Rukia said, finally speaking up.

"Overreacting? What if they pull through on their plan, and show Byakuya? He's going to kill me!" he replied. "I'm too young to die!"

"Nii-sama's not going to kill you," she told him, but he ignored her.

"Ron, are you on my side?" he asked, and Ron nodded.

"Harry, who's side are you on?" Ron asked, turning to Harry.

"I'm on the side that has…" Harry said, and stopped to think about what side he was on.

("I'm on the side that has donuts," Ruri declared.)

"I'm on Team Donut, too!" Rin said.

"Team Donut," Yumichika agreed.

"Team Strawberry," Ron said, and Ichigo nodded.

"Team Snickers?" Harry asked.

"Team Snickers," Rukia cheered. "Though I would've like to be Team Chappy, it didn't fit in with the food theme…"

"Team Snickers," Ikkaku said. "Sorry, Yumichika, but we're enemies now."

"No, Team Snickers is Switzerland- they're neutral," Hermione told him. "I'm on Team Donut, though."

"Team Snickers," Toshiro agreed, whipping out a Snickers from his pocket, and his teammates cheered.

"Um… Team… Pineapple?" Renji asked weakly, realizing he was on his own.

("No, Bad Pineapple. Go to Team Donut, since Ichigo's out to kill you," Ruri told him. "And, Kurosaki? Open the door already!")

"Team Donut, then," he said at the same time Ichigo quickly opened the door and closed it, just to annoy Ruri.

"Wait! Let me write this down so we don't forget," Rukia said, her sketchbook appearing magically in her hands. After a few seconds of scribbling, she showed it to everyone.

_Team Donut: Ruri, Hermione, Yumichika, Rin, Bad Pineapple_

_Team Strawberry: Ichigo, Ron_

_Team Snickers: Harry, Toshiro, Rukia, Ikkaku_

"Wait, why's my name listed as Bad Pineapple?" Renji asked.

"Because you _are _one," Rukia and Ruri said at the same time.

"So, is this war?" Ikkaku asked. "If so, where do we Team Snickers people go?"

"The sidelines," Toshiro answered, and the other Team Snickers people nodded.

("Yumichika! Can you save your fellow Team Donut-er now?" Ruri asked, kicking the door again.)

"Team Donut's first mission: Save their Leader!" Rin said dramatically, standing up.

"You make it sound so much awesomer than it really is," Harry commented, and Rin shrugged. A few minutes later, Team Donut had somehow managed to get Ichigo away from the door long enough for Yumichika to save Ruri and bring her back inside the classroom.

"Wait, I have a question!" Renji shouted, and everyone turned to him. "Where's the camera?"

"Yeah, that's a good question," Ruri agreed, and they turned on Ichigo. "Give it up, Kurosaki. Now."

"Umm… bye?" Ichigo said nervously, and quickly ran out the door. All of Team Donut chased after him, along with his fellow members of Team Strawberry. Soon, only Team Snickers remained in the room.

"Well, that was interesting," Ikkaku said, as if nothing ever happened.

In the end, the two teams ended up chasing each other throughout the school, and somehow didn't attract any of the professor's attention yet, though the students were following them to see what would happen. The two teams went outside, and soon a huge crowd of people were surrounding them, yelling out either 'Go Team Donut' or 'Team Strawberry Rules!' Somehow, Rin had ended up with the camera, and in his excitement he ended up accidentally throwing it into the lake… and caused both Teams to start yelling at him.

"What is going on out here?"

The two teams and the spectators froze as Snape walked towards all of them, glaring his eyes out.

"Oh, _shit," _Ichigo muttered.

"For once, I agree with you," Renji agreed.

"Team Donut! Retreat!" Ruri shouted, and she started running away. Yumichika, Rin, and Renji followed, but Hermione hesitated. "Hermione! Are you a true member of Team Donut, or not?"

"I am!" Hermione said, and she, too, followed Ruri towards the castle. Sadly, their escape plan failed, since the full force of Snape's glare was set on them… and he was blocking the way to the castle.

"Cowards!" Ichigo yelled. "What kind of person in Squad 11 runs away?"

"Kurosaki, you evil little strawberry!" Ruri shouted, quickly turning around and running back to where he was standing, Yumichika next to her. Rin and Hermione stayed where they were, looking on nervously.

"He's going to get beat up," Rin commented. "Say anything negative about their squad, and you're basically _begging _for a fight. It's a good thing Ikkaku isn't here…." Sure enough, the two were ganging up on Ichigo, and Renji was holding him back, since he was a previous member of Squad 11, and also took offence to the 'coward' comment. Ruri and Yumichika had murderous looks on their faces, and Ron was backing away slowly, abandoning his one and only other member of Team Strawberry.

"Boo, Team Strawberry sucks!" someone shouted, and similar yells soon sounded.

"Go Team Donut! Beat up the Strawberry!"

"No! Don't kill me! Squad 11 is awesome!" Ichigo suddenly shouted.

"And what else?" Yumichika asked. He and Ruri had left their gigais, and Yumichika was holding his zanpaktou to Ichigo's throat.

"It's the best squad ever? The prettiest?" he asked quickly.

"And?" Ruri asked, a hand on the hilt of her zanpaktou. "You're forgetting something."

"You guys aren't cowards, because that's what the 4th squad is for?"

"That's more like it," Renji muttered, and Yumichika sheathed his zanpaktou. He and Ruri went back into their gigais, and Renji let go of Ichigo as the rest of Team Donut joined them. Ron quickly rushed to Ichigo's side, and then was doubting doing that as Snape was walking closer to them. In the chaos that Ichigo had brought, everyone had forgotten about the Potions Master. The crowds that were cheering on Team Donut quickly dispersed, and disappeared into the castle, leaving Team Donut and Team Strawberry outside to deal with Snape.

"Explain yourselves," Snape said, and they all gulped.

"Kurosaki called Squad 11 cowards," Ruri said after a few seconds.

"Not the entire squad, just you, Yumichika, and the rest of Team Donut," Ichigo protested.

"Then why'd you mention our squad?" Yumichika asked him.

Snape coughed, and they all turned to him. "What is this nonsense about teams?"

"Ron and Ichigo are the only members of Team Strawberry. Their main goal is to kill me, Ruri, and Renji," Hermione spoke up. "Team Donut is me, Ruri, Yumichika, Rin, and Renji. We're the ones either running for our lives, or backing up the ones running for their lives. And Team Snickers is made up of Toshiro, Rukia, Ikkaku, and Harry, and they're neutral."

Right now, everyone could tell that Snape was wishing he never asked anything. "And… _why _exactly did you create these… teams?"

"Ruri and Hermione planned on getting Byakuya to kill me," Ichigo blurted out.

"Ichigo was taking pictures of me and Yumichika! He wasn't respecting our privacy!" Ruri said.

"Renji was being a bad pineapple, again!" he argued.

"Why does it always end up being me being a bad pineapple?" Renji muttered, and was once again told that it was because he _was_ a bad pineapple.

"And, Ruri, it was your fault you fell on Yumichika!" Ichigo continued.

"No, it was Rin's fault for attempting to steal my donut," she said, and then paused, turning to Yumichika, who gulped. "Yumi, love, what happened to my donut?" she asked sweetly, while glaring daggers at him.

"I…"

"YOU MONSTER!" Ruri shouted, slapping Yumichika across the face. "I trusted you!"

"Sounds like he was caught cheating on her," Ron muttered, and got some nods of agreement.

"Ruri, what if I'll buy you another marble frosted donut?" Yumichika asked, rubbing his face. "Two of them?"

"Make it three and you got a deal," she muttered.

"Fine, three donuts," he said.

"Three _marble frosted _donuts," Ruri corrected, and he nodded quickly, before wondering if she loved donuts more than him. He hoped not, because that would just be _pathetic._

Snape, meanwhile, was staring at them all, confused out of his mind for once. "This… this chaos all started because of a _donut?"_

"My poor, poor, precious donut!" Ruri wailed, collapsing and sitting on the ground. "Who knows where it went, or what happened to it!" Yumichika rolled his eyes, but nevertheless knelt down beside her, and she fake-sobbed into his shoulder. Well, the two Teams knew she was fake-sobbing. Snape didn't.

"Believe it or not, it did," Rin answered Snape, nodding. "That, and whatever was on the camera…."

"At least the camera's gone," Ichigo said, but stared at Snape in shock and horror as he summoned the camera, which flew out of the lake. Snape pressed some buttons on it, and it somehow turned on. "That's… the camera…"

"And… it's working, and most likely has all the pictures on it," she muttered after looking up from Yumichika's shoulders. Then what she said actually hit her and everyone else, and she ducked her head as she and Yumichika started blushing, along with Ichigo and Hermione.

Snape, meanwhile, was taking his sweet time looking through the pictures of Ichigo and Rukia, the few shots of Hermione and Krum, and the one shot of Yumichika and Ruri from earlier. "What would happen," he said slowly, "if these pictures were somehow shown to your captains?"

"No, Professor Snape, don't!" Ichigo yelled, his eyes wide. "I'll actually pay attention in your class if you don't do anything with those pictures!"

"Are you saying you don't pay attention in my class now, Kurosaki?" he asked, and Ichigo, realizing his mistake, swore and quickly shook his head. Snape glared at him and then turned to the other two. "What about you, Aruteru, Ayasegawa?"

"What about us?" Yumichika asked.

"Would would happen if this picture of you two was shown to your captain?" Snape asked irritably, annoyed that he had to repeat himself.

"Nothing really, Professor," Ruri answered, shrugging, and annoying him further. "See, Ichigo has a reason for not wanting the shot of him and Rukia to be seen in Seireitei, because then he'll have Captain Kuchiki out for his blood. As for my Captain goes, he probably won't care." Yumichika nodded his agreement.

"He's the one with the eye patch?" he asked, and they nodded. "Out of curiosity, how did you even make it into that squad?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know the same thing," Hermione said.

"I had to fight some unseated 11th squad-er. I _accidentally _nearly killed the guy," Ruri replied, shrugging. Everyone looked at her dubiously. "Really, it's true!"

"The guy called her short," Yumichika explained, and everyone nodded, since it made sense now.

"All of you, detention for a month for being idiots and causing this chaos," Snape said after a few seconds of glaring at them all.

"Even me?" Rin asked. "Because I don't really-"

"Which team are you on?" he asked, interrupting him.

"Team Donut," Rin replied.

"Then you get detention!" Snape said, glaring at him, and Rin gulped.

"Wait… so does that mean that Team Strawberry doesn't get detention?" Ron asked hopefully, and was glared at.

"Both Teams get detention for a month! No more questions!" he shouted, and then took a deep breath as he felt a migraine coming on. "Just… go back to your dorms or something. Team … Strawberry's detention will start at seven, and Team… Donut's detention will start whenever they get back." Everyone hid back their smirks when Snape said the Team names, but then gulped as he continued. "Be late, and you get an extra week of detention."

"Um, what's going to happen with the pictures?" Ichigo asked nervously.

"You'll find out," Snape said evilly, and then disappeared into the castle.

* * *

The next morning, rumors were being whispered about the Shinigami. The Hufflepuffs that were scared out of their minds were now wondering why exactly they were, since the Shinigami didn't exactly _seem_ dangerous… just crazy. The few Slytherins that were, actually, plotting ways of getting the Soul Reapers to join Voldemort were doubting that doing that would do them any good, and just settled for making fun of them all. Everyone else thought that the Shinigami being at Hogwarts for the next few years would be a good thing, since their insanity was entertainment to them, and would also be the cause of some more money to their name (they never grew tired of betting). The professors, however, were wishing that Soul Reapers didn't exist, so that they all wouldn't have to deal with the headaches, migraines, and all-around annoyance caused by them.

Meanwhile, Toshiro and Rukia had managed to get some of the Ravenclaws to join Team Snickers, infuriating Teams Donut and Strawberry. That was why Ichigo was passing out slips of papers to the Gryffindors so that they could vote on which Team they wanted to back up. If it was a tie, then Rukia agreed to get rid of the Ravenclaws and the three Teams would have their original teammates. By the middle of breakfast, all of the Gryffindors were yelling at each other to vote for the other team, and it was making the Gryffindor Soul Reapers go crazy.

"Will you all just shut _up?" _Yumichika yelled, finally losing his patience, and almost immediately the entire Gryffindor table was silent, and looking at him. "If voting for a team is that difficult, just forget about it then!"

"Agreed!" Rukia yelled from the Ravenclaw table, and that ended that.

* * *

**Me: Next chapter will be back to the plot! Rukia finds out how to open the egg without her ears falling off! Anyway, review, please! Any ideas for something that happens later on is greatly appreciated! But cookie-stealing and donut-stealing is not. Oh, and I don't own Lord of the Rings!**

**Yumichika (eating part of my giant cookie): Review?**


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